more time you

Positive words for More Time for You‘‘More Time for You offers a powerful and practical system that anyone can applyin their lives for immediate results.’’—Jackie Glenn , Chief Diversity Officer andSenior Director of Human Resources, EMC Corporation

‘‘The principles and practices in More Time for You have enabled and inspiredour global sales team to produce results far beyond expectations, as we lookforward to even greater performance and productivity.’’—Ray Hollinger, Direc-tor, Sales Development, IHS, Inc.

‘‘More Time for You has given me a much needed breath of fresh air. As a man-ager, I knew how to organize at work but was not very effective at balancing myday-to-day life. The techniques and systems the authors share in this book havehelped me see that I have the power to get it all done as well as have the timeto enjoy life! And these tools are very easy to implement. I wish I could haveread it sooner!’’—Marla Dillard-Lemons, Quality Systems Manager, Ford MotorCompany

‘‘The practices in More Time for You have been eagerly embraced by our busycorporate and field-based employees looking for new ways to be productive andfocused in both their work and home lives. One of the things our employeesfound most helpful was learning the habit of capturing everything in one place.For many people the impact was immediate! They were released from the anxi-ety of worrying about all the things they had to do—wherever they were cur-rently being stored. After implementing this practice, people reported sleepingbetter, taking more time for exercise, and generally feeling more in control oftheir lives.’’—Helen Zarba, Director, Education and Training, Bright HorizonsFamily Solutions LLC

‘‘When Rosemary and Alesia tried to convince me to consider a new approachto managing tasks and time, I was dubious at best. I am grateful they were sopersistent, because their approach has changed my life. I now have peace ofmind knowing that my priorities have a place on my calendar, and I need nolonger worry about what I might be forgetting to do!’’—Elaine Gentile, Leader-ship & Organization Development Manager, Iron Mountain, Inc.

‘‘Trying to get more done in less time is a challenge we are all facing duringthese times. Finally—a practical guide that provides readers with a clear road-map toward increased efficiency. This book will change your life.’’—Mike Hyter,President and Managing Partner, Global Novations

‘‘A man I admire was once described by one of his peers as a consummate old-school gentleman, ‘having time for me at the drop of a hat—he is never hurried,always patient, always willing to listen, and never unavailable.’ More Time forYou is a book that captures relatively easy tools that allow us to be patient,attentive, and available in our lives—on the job, to our loved ones, and in ourcommunities. It embraces today’s technology to create room for each of us tolive old-school lives.—Stuart Fross, Partner, K&L Gates, LLP

‘‘With a one-hour commute, two brands to manage, a daughter in college on theEast Coast, a son in high school on the West Coast, and a wife who signed up formore companionship than I could give, I was spread too thin. I had all the tools

but lacked the system to put them to work. More Time for You has restored myquality of life. The techniques and tips for achieving greater organization, produc-tivity, and order in life are simple, understandable, and easy to implement.’’—PeteWorley, Brand President, Teva and Simple Shoes, Deckers Outdoor Corporation

‘‘The African Proverb ‘For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for ittoday’ captures the thoughtfulness and brilliance in More Time for You. We, thepeople, spend so much of our time wasting it away. As best said by Anne Frank‘How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting toimprove the world.’ This book gives us the opportunity to regain our time sowe can contribute to our world in a more meaningful, creative, productiveway!’’—Valerie E. Patton, Executive Director, St. Louis Business Diversity Initia-tive

’’Although I’ve always considered myself an excellent manager of my businessand personal schedule, after reading More Time for You I now feel that I mayhave been the victim of an overactive ego. The authors’ sage advice, written andlaid out in a clear and concise manner, is a refreshing and insightful demonstra-tion of just how easily you can get more out of every day. I know that it madean immediate impact on my daily routine; and it could change your life!’’—Michael D. Lyons, Prudential Lyons Group Real Estate

‘‘One trait the happiest and most successful people I know have in common isthe rigor and discipline with which they manage their time. While each of ushas been given the gift of time, few would say they manage this precious re-source wisely and well. This book enables you to set and fulfill your dreams,making time for what’s most important to you instead of simply living each daylike you’re two steps behind on the treadmill of life. It contains the tools suc-cessful and fulfilled people use to seize the gift of time with purpose and pas-sion, so they can live their lives with maximum meaning and minimalregrets.’’—Susan Hodgkinson, Founder and Principal, The Personal Brand Com-pany

‘‘This book brings new insight and clarity to one of the big challenges of modernlife: keeping true to oneself while managing—or saying ‘no’ to the ‘stuff’ of busylives. As a parent, spouse, friend, entrepreneur, and cancer survivor, I will lookto More Time for You again and again. The ideas, tools and thinking of this bookwill help you move from a life of good intentions to a more intentional life.’’—Terri Nimmons, Principal and Founder, Stone Lake Leadership Group

‘‘More Time for You sets forth a tangible battle plan for conquering the ‘HolyGrail’ of productivity—how to balance the must do’s and have some qualitytime left for you. Where Covey began the dialogue, Tator and Latson continuethe journey toward successful time management, providing the reader with up-to-date strategies and tactics for slaying the ‘procrastination dragon’ and creat-ing more time for the areas of your life that matter! Whether you report to anoffice, work remotely, are a student or a homemaker, this book is a must read,providing aspirations of what your life could be and inspiration on how to getthere.’’—Michael Floyd, Founder, CEO, Pharmaffectiv, LLC

(Continued on page 228)

UOfor

EMITEROM

YA Powerful System to Organize

Your Work and Get Things Done

AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATIONNew York • Atlanta • Brussels • Chicago • Mexico City • San Francisco

Shanghai • Tokyo • Toronto • Washington, D.C.

ROSEMARY TATOR and ALESIA LATSON

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tator, Rosemary.More time for you : a powerful system to organize your work and getthings done / Rosemary Tator and Alesia Latson.

p. cm.Includes index.ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1647-1ISBN-10: 0-8144-1647-01. Time management. 2. Personal information management. I. Latson,Alesia. II. Title.HD69.T54T38 2011650.1�1—dc22

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� 2011 Rosemary Tator and Alesia Latson.All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.

This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inwhole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division ofAmerican Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

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To Roosevelt Wilson, Linda Wilson, Debra Latson,and Michael Latson:

Your memory will live forever in my heart.—ALESIA

To June and John Meehan:You have inspired me, and thousands of others,

to be all you can be.—ROSEMARY

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix

INTRODUCTION 1

PART 1: SO MUCH TO DO 5

CHAPTER 1 TIME AND EFFECTIVENESS 7

CHAPTER 2 THREE COPING STRATEGIES THAT DON’T WORK 25

CHAPTER 3 TIME AND YOU 39

PART 2: KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT 47

CHAPTER 4 BEING CLEAR ABOUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT 49

CHAPTER 5 CREATING YOUR LIFE 61

PART 3: THE MORE-TIME-FOR-YOU SYSTEM TOORGANIZE YOUR WORK AND GET THINGS DONE 73

CHAPTER 6 CAPTURING YOUR THOUGHTS 74

CHAPTER 7 DESIGNING YOUR DAYS 92

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER 8 DREAMS COME TRUE WHEN YOU PLAN 113

CHAPTER 9 MANAGING E-MAIL 122

CHAPTER 10 REDUCING E-MAIL VOLUME 148

CHAPTER 11 BACK ON THE TRIAGE WAGON 160

CHAPTER 12 SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE TO STAY 164

CHAPTER 13 RELAUNCHING YOUR CREATED LIFE 174

CHAPTER 14 PARTING WORDS 197

APPENDIX A IMPLEMENTATION ACTION PLAN 199

APPENDIX B ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGINGCALENDAR AND E-MAIL SYSTEMS 202

NOTES 219

INDEX 221

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 227

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Claudia Gere whose dedication, infinite patience,and amazing talent transformed our ideas into a coherent

book. She has been our Sherpa in guiding us through the writingand publishing process. Without her uncompromising support thisbook would not be a reality.We acknowledge the founders of Mission Control Productivity

LLC for contributing to our lifelong inquiry into what it takes tolive into our potential, as well as for creating the workshop wherewe met. We thank Brian Stuhlmuller, who launched Mission Con-trol, and Brian Regnier, who developed many of the concepts andmaterials. Your coaching of and commitment to our developmenthas made a major difference in our lives. We also appreciate DougFisher’s collaborative spirit and commitment to partnership.A very special thanks to our early readers for their invaluable

feedback: Debra Baker, Janet Britcher, Bonni Carson DiMatteo, SueFraser, Diana Hammer, Bruce Katcher, Marianne Mortara, VanessaLatson, Rob Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Carol Salloway, Eb Schmidt,Jane Wells, Deborah Wild, and Helen Zarba.And to Mary Gallagher, who witnessed the conception of this

book and was an inspiration to both of us throughout this process.There are many people who have contributed to the fields of

productivity, stress management, and living a purposeful life whohave influenced our thinking and to whom we are deeply grateful.

—Rosemary Tator and Alesia Latson, 2010

To Alesia: Your commitment to excellence and your eloquence flowsthroughout the book. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this bookwith you. Our collaboration has added to my life in so many ways,

x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

and chief among them is my newfound understanding and apprecia-tion of how wonderfully a committed partnership can work.To Wes, my husband, my partner in life: It’s your steadfast sup-

port for me and my endeavors and your ever-present love thatsources our wonderful life together. To our children Angel and Sethand their spouses Ian and Erin: I honor your commitment to eachother, your dedication to consciously and lovingly parenting ourbeautiful grandchildren, your pursuit of ongoing growth profession-ally and spiritually, and how you contribute so selflessly to yourcommunities.To my parents, June and John Meehan: Your ever-present love,

along with your can-do attitude, has given me the foundation tolive fully and make a difference. To my siblings Jack, June, Mau-reen, Michael, Theresa, and Colleen: You, your spouses, and yourchildren have celebrated with me during the best of times as wellas those ‘‘other’’ times, and I always know I can count on your loveand support.To my wonderful grandchildren, Kiran, Sam, and Zoe: I am so

thankful to be able to have you in my life. Kiran and Zoe, eventhough we are a continent apart and see each other only a few timeseach year, you are forever in my thoughts. And, Sam, watching yougrow and playing with you, learning from you, and relishing in yourglow is always the highlight of my week.To the members of our Mastering Effectiveness Program—Joe

Cicero, Ramona Dorsey, Carol Holland, Ray Hollinger, Rich McAn-drew, Dana McIntyre, Andy Miser, and Cathleen Moynihan: Part-nering with you was a constant source of inspiration and supportas well as a plethora of material for this book.To my fellow Sufficiency Partners—Jen Cohen, Carol Dearborn,

Miriam Hawley, Gina LaRoche, Martha Russell, and Mike Scarpone,as well as my partner, Trudy van de Berg, your ‘‘sacred listening’’has given rise to my voice.To my clients, coworkers, and business partners—present and

former: You’ve all played a part in my thought process and experi-ences. Thank you for your trust and respect.

—Rosemary Tator, 2010

Acknowledgments xi

Not only does it take a village to raise a child, but it takes one towrite a book as well. I have been blessed with a wonderful village offamily, friends, clients, and colleagues who have provided support,guidance, and encouragement along the way.Chief among them is my coauthor, Rosemary Tator, a wonderful

thinking and writing partner. Rosemary, thank you for the coachingand support through the years. Your patience and exuberant spiritbrought us through the darkness that accompanies the writingprocess.To my fabulous husband, Brian: Thank you for your warm en-

couragement, divine patience, daily inspiration, and unconditionallove. I am so grateful and privileged to have you as my life’s com-panion.To my parents, Joyce Wilson and Leroy Dockett, thank you for

your loving support and guidance and all that you’ve done in shap-ing the person that I’ve become. Thank you to my siblings, RoryDockett, Robin Wilson, and Arlene Dockett, for putting up with myidiosyncrasies and supporting me in spite of them. To my nieces(Vanessa, Jourdan, and Jada) and nephews (Matthew, Joshua, andKaleb): You are a source of joy, and true treasures in my life, inspir-ing and filling me with optimism for the future.I’m very blessed to have a large extended family of grand-

parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who have generously and lov-ingly contributed to my life. I am forever grateful for your love andunyielding support.To my enduring supporters, Angela Crowder-Clark, Janet Brit-

cher, Camille Brower, Alicia Cahill-Watts, Tina Campidelli, SandyDavis, Janice Clements Skelton, Sue Hodgkinson, Marcia Kimm,Katie Lesene, Yvonne Murphy, Terri Nimmons, Patricia Patterson,Jeanne Robison, Linda Rodriguez, Sharon Schneider, Theresa Till-mon, Magda Trujuilo, Henrietta Turnquest, and Cindy Walker: Ican’t imagine what my life would be without you. Thank you foryour unconditional support, dead-on coaching, gut-busting laugh-ter, and for that special sister-friend bond that sustains and nour-ishes my soul. I dearly cherish you.I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention my brother-friends who

xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

throughout the years have been great and patient mentors, namely,Scott David, Percy Hayles, John Ryan, and Nate Norman.To my clients and colleagues, thank you for the privilege to

work and grow alongside with you. Whatever value you have re-ceived from working with me, I’ve received that, and a thousandtimes more, from working with you.

—Alesia Latson, 2010

INTRODUCTION

ALESIA’S STORY

The bane of my existence has always been the management (orin my case, the mismanagement) of time. I have struggled withfinding time to ‘‘do it all.’’ In high school and college, I was notori-ous for pulling all-nighters to study or write papers (a habit I havenot outgrown). When I started my career, I was often the last toleave the office. As a consultant, I am challenged to travel, facilitateworkshops, undertake project work, address client needs, prospectfor new clients, and write for a living. In addition to nurturing mymarriage and caring for my family, there is all the stuff of life:friends, holidays, parties, errands, bills, exercising, piano practice,classes, reading, theater, vacation, thank-you notes, e-mail, taxpreparation, and so on. For me, it all can get daunting. I’m embar-rassed to tell you how many flights, trains, appointments, and op-portunities I’ve missed. How many times I’ve run out of gas. Howmany birthdays, anniversaries, and events that I wanted to attend,but forgot about. How many books and articles I haven’t read; mov-ies and plays that I haven’t seen; classes that I haven’t taken; ortrips and sporting events that I haven’t enjoyed—not because Ididn’t have the time (trust me, I’ve had plenty of time to do thesethings), but because I didn’t appropriate the time. I was neither de-signing my days consciously nor creating my life purposefully. Thisproven system to organize your work and get things done, the sys-tem that Rosemary and I share in this book, is the result of ourown experience and exploration into finding a way to manage ourbusy lives to be fulfilling—not just full of things to do.Is my life perfect? No. Far from it. Am I late for the occasional

meeting or appointment? Yes. Do I do everything I want to do? Notalways. But do I have a great life? Yes! Not because I get everything

2 MORE TIME FOR YOU

done that I want to do in a day, week, month, or year, but becauseI’ve designed it to be full of the stuff of life that means the most tome. And that couldn’t happen without the system that we’ll intro-duce to you in this book. So settle in and buckle up. It’s going to bea great ride!

—Alesia Latson

ROSEMARY’S STORY

For most of my life, I have taken on more and more projects,events, and things to do than there is time to do them. As soon asI get into a project, I see all these resources and people that couldenhance the project, and I add them to my already-bulging schedule.I come by this honestly. I consider myself a ‘‘professional multi-tasker’’ and have been at it since my childhood. As the oldest ofseven children, I learned from the best of the best: Back then,multitasking meant finding one child’s mittens while sending theother one out the door, while telling my mother, ‘‘Everything is allset.’’ And it continued into my career. I hate to admit it, but I actu-ally trained people to hire others based on how well they couldmultitask.Adding to my ‘‘condition’’ is my high-energy, upbeat, ‘‘I can do

it’’ attitude. At first blush, this characteristic of mine may soundlike a great blessing and a benefit in accomplishing things in life.Perhaps it would be, were I in control of it. You see, these qualitiesaffect not only me but other people, too. At times everyone aroundme is spinning with me at the speed of light. As exciting as thisexperience may be in the moment, and as great as the ‘‘high’’ maybe for pulling things off once again, as my husband says, ‘‘Dear, thisis totally unsustainable.’’ You can just about predict the forgottenmessages, the missed thank-you notes, and the settling for less thanwhat would have been possible if I had been more realistic with mytime. My inability to deal with twenty-four hours in a day and 168

Introduction 3

hours in a week has been a major cause of angst throughout my lifeand career.The processes and practices that Alesia and I share in this book

are a direct result of our own experiences, struggles, and triumphs.We not only write about these practices and coach and train peoplein them, but we live by them, too. This system of practices ‘‘groundsme.’’ I face the reality of the time available to me as never before.It supports me in remembering that I truly can only do one thingwell at a time. Making choices has become a natural part of my daynow, and my reliability has greatly increased. I have the time tofocus on what I say is most important. I’m still an optimistic per-son, but now a much more realistic one also.As you make your way through the book, try these practices on

for size and make them your own. This is your one life.

—Rosemary Tator

SO MUCH TO DO

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it . . .

LORD CHESTERFIELD

ENOTRP A

1

TIME ANDEFFECTIVENESS

Live a good life. And in the end, it’s not the years in the life, it’sthe life in the years.

—ABRAHAM LINCOLN

If you had Aladdin’s magic lamp and could make three wishes,it’s a good bet one of them would be to have more time. Youwouldn’t be reading this book right now if you already had all thetime you wanted. Chances are that you are interested in havingmore time not just for the sake of having more time (after all, whowants to have more time to be in the dentist chair?). You wantmore time for particular purposes. You want more time to do allthe things you dream about doing. More time for the things youlove; more time to spend with friends and family. More time toengage in work that is fulfilling, rewarding, and satisfying. Moretime to spend in places that you dream about going, or places thatyou long to return. More time to shop, read, dance, cook, sing, play,sail, travel, paint, listen to music, run, walk, read, sleep, eat, kiss,ski, fish, knit, journal, garden, volunteer, entertain, play golf, medi-tate, hike, make wine, or swim. More time to enjoy the nectar andsweetness of life.

8 MORE TIME FOR YOU

Unfortunately, there is no way to get more time. We can’t man-ufacture minutes. It’s impossible to add more hours to the day. Wehave a fixed quantity of twenty-four hours in a day to work with.So, it’s not how much time we have; it’s what we do with the timethat we are given.That’s what this book is all about. It’s about adding ‘‘life in the

years,’’ and having compelling answers to the following questions:What will you do with your allocation of time on this planet? Whowill you become? What will you have? What legacy will you leavebehind?If you want more time for you, then you are going to need to

increase your capacity to be more effective, efficient, and productivewith the time you currently have. This book gives you step-by-stepinstructions on how to do just that.Our journey begins with the lives of three people who, in jug-

gling the priorities of their professional and personal lives, feeloverwhelmed by trying to plan and do all the tasks required for allaspects of their lives. Starting with these stories, this book explainswhat robs us of our time, and then provides a powerful system fororganizing work and getting things done so that there is more timefor you to live your life on your own terms.

ELIZABETH’S STORY

Elizabeth is a hardworking, committed wife, mother, and profes-sional who defines herself by how much she is able to accomplish.She knows it is often impossible to complete every task on herdaily list, but continues to feel incompetent when she fails to getsomething done. She finds herself caught in a vicious cycle: Themore she struggles to do everything that needs to be done, themore there is for her to do. And the more there is to do, the moredissatisfied she becomes in her role as a wife, mother, and profes-sional.

Time and Effectiveness 9

When Elizabeth began her job as a commercial real estate bro-ker, she was both confident and excited about this new opportunity;nowadays, she finds it difficult to handle the demands of her profes-sional and personal life. A typical day might involve showing themill property, meeting with the developers for the new school,searching for the tax card for the multifamily house that she’s beentrying to close for the last two months, catching her son’s soccerpractice a half hour late, picking up her daughter from Girl Scouts,and making ten calls to organize the bake sale for her church. Butno matter how hard she tries, no matter how much she manages toget done, she continues to fall behind.There are some obvious signs that Elizabeth is in trouble. The

first sign is that she has neglected to take care of herself. She failsto exercise or eat nutritiously, so she is overweight. She constantlyskips breakfast or lunch to create more work time in her schedule,and is consumed with hunger by the time that she arrives home at7:30 p.m. When she walks in the door, she is ravenous and eatswhatever she can find that is both filling and easy to make. By thistime, it is either too late or she is too tired to enjoy her family.Despite her most valiant attempts, she usually falls asleep withinfifteen minutes of sitting and relaxing with her husband and chil-dren. At 5:00 a.m. the following morning, the alarm jolts her fromsleep, and by 6:30 a.m., she begins her commute back to her office,at work once more.Another sign of trouble is clutter. Elizabeth moves so quickly

that she creates a wake of clutter behind her, one wave after an-other. The accumulating mess becomes so daunting that she cannotbear to face it. She is incapable of sending or receiving e-mail be-cause she has exceeded her storage quota and filled her inbox. Shecan barely find anything on her desk because of the massive clutter.She has piles of papers on her floor, file cabinet, and every othersurface, leaving only the seat of her chair as an available restingplace for important documents. Elizabeth has become oblivious tothe albatross around her neck. Arms flailing, she is drowning in thewaves of responsibilities and clutter, with no hope of rescue.

10 MORE TIME FOR YOU

PHIL’S STORY

To the naked eye, Phil appears to be a successful manager at a com-puter company. He holds a high-paying position and has an admin-istrative assistant, Rebecca. Unlike Elizabeth in the previous story,Phil has Rebecca nearby to manage the papers, the filing, and theclutter. As his gatekeeper, Rebecca schedules his important personaland work-related appointments and makes sure that people don’tinterrupt him unnecessarily. With all of this support, you mightthink Phil would have everything under control.Phil has three teenage boys and realizes the importance of hav-

ing more time to spend with his family and being present in thelives of his children. He knows and honors that crucial role he playsas a teacher, role model, and father to his sons. He wants to spendas much time as possible with his boys before they are grown andengaged in their own life endeavors.One day at work, Phil found himself thinking, ‘‘I have to stop

this! I need the time to see my children grow up. No matter what, Imust stop spending so much of my time at work.’’ Despite theseundying pleas to himself, he continued to be consumed by his work.So he told Rebecca, ‘‘Please, make sure I leave work on time.’’She replied softly, ‘‘I’m not even here when you leave, Phil.’’‘‘Well,’’ said Phil, ‘‘let’s just try not to schedule appointments

for me after 5:30 p.m.’’ Rebecca readily agreed. This plan was suc-cessful for only two days before Phil fell back into the same trap.He found himself leaving work at seven-thirty or eight o’clock atnight.Disheartened and exhausted, Phil feels defeated. Even with the

help of an assistant, he cannot manage his schedule such that hecan be home in time to have dinner with his family.

ERIC’S STORY

Eric, a senior vice president of sales for an insurance company, isrespected as an energetic leader, an influential member of his com-munity, and a caring father and husband. He attended one of our


two-day productivity and effectiveness workshops where we dis-cussed how many seemingly helpful strategies for managing time,such as multitasking, are actually detrimental.That first evening, Eric went home and took his wife and two

children out for ice cream following dinner. He turned his car ontoInterstate 91, the same busy road that he takes to work. Suddenly,his cell phone buzzed, and he instinctively began to attend to a textmessage. His wife looked over at him in disbelief and asked, ‘‘Whatare you doing?’’ When Eric failed to respond, she escalated her con-cern and screamed, ‘‘What are you doing!’’Eric looked at his distraught wife and realized that he was not

mentally present in the car with his family. Instead, he was on hisway to work, doing what he did every morning: combining the tasksof communicating and driving to remain ahead of his steady work-load. However, in the moment, he was unaware that he was jeopar-dizing the safety of his two sons, sleeping in their car seats, as wellas himself and his wife. Before this incident, the inherent danger insending a text message while driving had never occurred to him.Today, texting while driving is illegal in some states. But thatdoesn’t seem to stop the Erics of this world.Eric’s story is symptomatic of many executives who lose touch

with what is important when trying to do more than they can han-dle. They fail to recognize not only the dangers, but also how muchof life they are missing out on. Eric is an example of a person whois ‘‘chasing’’ to get it all done at any cost.When it comes to managing your life, what’s your story? Can

you relate to Elizabeth, Phil, and Eric? Whatever your personal ex-perience, regardless of how overwhelmed you feel, you can rest as-sured that you are not alone. Many of us are longing for more timefor ourselves and looking for a way to manage time so that we aregetting things done and living more life.

TIME SHORTAGE

Ask anyone what they want more of and time is sure to be at thetop of the list (or at least a close second to money and sleep). We


live with the persistent thought that there just isn’t enough time.So where did all of the time go? With modern advances in technol-ogy one would think that we would experience more time to dowhat we want to do, but that’s not the case. We’ve run into a wallregarding our current thinking about productivity and effective-ness. Our old models are obsolete and ineffectual. The to-do list nolonger works; neither do weekly objectives. We are far beyond thescope of what those practices were designed to do. There are validreasons why we find ourselves operating in a state of wanting moretime. We’ll illustrate how these factors have been creeping steadilyinto our lives to make our current productivity practices insufficientfor the life and work demands of the twenty-first century. Under-standing why feeling overwhelmed has become a common conditionin today’s world and why it is important to develop a new relation-ship with time is the first step in learning new practices and gainingmore control of your life.

Pace

We live in a new and unprecedented time. Life around us movesfaster and at previously unthinkable speeds. Just look at the popu-lar television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The producersidentify a family in need of a new home, and then a crew of contrac-tors, designers, and volunteers swoops in, tears down the old house,pours the expanded foundation, puts up a new frame, paints andfurnishes the new house, and landscapes the property. In one week,while the family enjoys a Disney vacation, the crew builds a beauti-ful new home and then the family moves back in.Books are printed and shipped overnight. With e-mail, docu-

ments are transported instantaneously. News events are broadcastas they happen. Vacation photographs and videos are sent instantlyby phone. When you stop and think about the world that existedonly twenty-five or thirty years ago, it seems as though everythingback then happened in slow motion.If you were working in a typical office during the 1970s or even

in the 1980s, you might remember having an inbox sitting on yourdesk. It was a physical, oblong box, often labeled ‘‘IN.’’ Stacked on


top of it, or on the other side of the desk, sat the box labeled ‘‘OUT.’’During the day, people made requests directly: They used telephonecalls, mail (of the ‘‘snail’’ variety), interoffice memos (physically cop-ied and distributed), and for companies doing business internation-ally, telex messages. There was no videoconferencing, no e-mail, andno instant messages. By the end of the day, almost all work taskswere completed; the inbox was empty and even the documents werefiled away. While there were exceptions, this was the way most peo-ple worked.

Magnitude

The volume of what we deal with each day is also unprecedented.There are many new ways to be bombarded by advertising, infor-mation, and opportunities on our music devices, cell phones,smartphones, and computers. Sophisticated picture-in-picture tech-nologies on TV and computer screens make it easier to watch multi-ple shows at one time, and with digital recording devices, we won’tmiss anything.We once relied on a set of hardcopy encyclopedias to look up

information on a subject; now, Internet search engines allow us toaccess resources instantaneously. Digital cameras make it possiblefor people to take hundreds of pictures, creating a quagmire ofphoto files embedded in the hard drives of their computers. Just adecade ago, most families took only a few family pictures each year.The dramatic change in the cost of computer storage has now

made mass storage affordable. However, the by-product of cost-effective memory is that, because it is available, we fill it with moreinformation.

Clutter

It’s not only the glut of information, but also the physical clutterthat bombards us. We consume and accumulate more things andnew technological toys, but we don’t make choices about what wealready have. For example, we have clothes for different seasons,activities, and sizes. We have closets full of clothes, yet we might


complain about having nothing to wear for a given occasion. Wehave books, old magazines, and dated reports we don’t throw out.We might have a garage or basement full of older-model televisions,computer monitors, and DVDs we don’t watch anymore, and out-dated technologies such as VCRs and cassette tapes.The clutter includes the e-mails in our inboxes, electronic files

in desktop folders, and the papers in our file cabinets or on ourdesks. There is so much to do because so much fills our space as weaccumulate projects, materials, and goods we don’t use.Could this situation account for the emerging field of profes-

sional organizers, the popularity of feng shui to help us create har-monious space, and workshops that instruct us to clean out closets,empty our kitchen junk drawers, and eliminate expired, worn-outproducts from our medicine cabinets?

Complexity

We live in a 24/7 world that offers both convenience and complex-ity. Globalization means we now deal across continents, time zones,and cultures. Many of us no longer have standard office hours, asemployees around the world need to collaborate in virtual teams.Sections of this book were written virtually via an Internet phoneconnection, with one person in China and another in New England.We have a myriad of different technologies for communicating

with one another across distances and time zones. Computers havebecome more than data-entry machines. Equipped with micro-phones, video cameras, and color printers, computers are multipur-pose publishers, televisions, radios, telephones, scanners, and faxmachines.We have integrated many kinds of media into everything we

do. Not too long ago, writing a report, giving a talk, or holding ameeting or conference call were separate tasks. Now, meeting pre-sentations include slides with video and audio clips, and you canhost a web meeting so that people can, from remote locations, askyou questions while you talk. You can e-mail or print full-colorhandouts. Everything has become flashier, more integrated, andmore complex.


The increase in volume and speed of access to information addsto the complexity of managing it all. We have much more data avail-able to us and we have easy access to it; the challenge is makingsense of it, learning from it, and synthesizing it fast enough. Adecision you made yesterday may change tomorrow because of newdata.The increase in volume and speed of access has also increased

the complexity of our lives. Think about it: A person can contactyou at your home phone (if you still have one) or by cell phone,office phone, e-mail at home, e-mail at work, instant message, textmessage, fax, U.S. Postal Service, overnight mail, and/or courierservice. On a daily basis, you may carry a cell phone/smartphoneon your belt or in your purse, wear a Bluetooth receiver in your ear,and pack a laptop in your briefcase or backpack. You may think thatwith all of this ‘‘productivity firepower’’ we would be producing at ahigher level and with greater ease. But here’s the reality: We’re not.E-mail is the perfect example.

E-Mail Invasion

Instead of being a solution for efficient communications, e-mail in-undates and controls us. Researchers at the Radicati Group esti-mated that the number of e-mails sent worldwide per day in 2009was approximately 247 billion. By 2013, this figure will more thandouble to 507 billion. About 81 percent of all e-mail traffic is spam.In 2009, around 1.4 billion people sent non-spam e-mails. Thatnumber is expected to increase to 1.9 billion in 2013.Advertising and e-mail have a lot of similarities, yet we deal

with them quite differently. We see advertisements daily in maga-zines and on television, billboards, elevators, buses, and subways,but if the ad isn’t for something that we are interested in, we dis-card or ignore it. We don’t feel that the ads are directed at us per-sonally. With e-mail, however, even when we are one of five millionpeople receiving a message, because our name is included as anaddressee, it can feel as if the e-mail is personal and we must openand read it.Can you imagine if every time you watched television you had


to categorize every commercial, think about its content, send it toother people, and then file it away? You’d go crazy. Yet that is whatmany of us do with our e-mail messages. Our inboxes are full ofmessages because we don’t know what to do with them.

THE LOST ART OF BEING EFFECTIVE

There is a difference between being effective and being productive.Productivity is a measure of how much you do with the resourcesyou have in a given amount of time. Being productive means youare producing something.You can be productive on a manufacturing line, or while writing

a report, or by improving your sales results. Productivity can be astatic number or quota.Effectiveness, on the other hand, is like a muscle: something

you can flex and build. Effectiveness is an ability; it is a measure ofhow you engage in a set of actions that produces the desired out-come. It is also a skill that has gone largely unexamined in terms ofwhat we mean by being ‘‘effective in life.’’ Being effective meansthat you choose what you focus on and where you place your effortsin order to cause an intentional effect on your life.To be effective, you must first ask yourself, ‘‘What do I want to

accomplish?’’ You cannot be effective without consciously choosingto be.This book examines effectiveness as it relates to managing your

minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and life. We’ll look atspecific areas of our lives that cause stress and anxiety—for exam-ple, e-mail, clutter, the inability to choose priorities, and the lack ofplanning.

LEARNING TO CHOOSE

One of the muscles required to lead an effective life is choice.Choices that you resist making will persist. For instance, countlesse-mails in your inbox are going to persist until you make some


choices about them or until your system manager or company poli-cies choose for you and cut you off from receiving or sending anymore messages.The holiday season gives us a good example of the difference

between effectiveness and productivity. How many people do youknow who complete all their shopping, send all their cards, spendweeks decorating their houses, and then find when the holidays areover, they are left wondering, ‘‘All that for this?’’ In the end theholidays are a huge letdown. These people were incredibly produc-tive, yet all that productivity didn’t result in a satisfying experience.Perhaps they were not especially effective at enjoying and relishingthe holidays with family and friends.What if, right now, you pulled out your calendar for October,

November, and December and scheduled time for buying holidaycards, editing your list, and writing and mailing your cards? Whatif you scheduled time to make a list of everyone you were going tobuy presents for? And, while you’re at it, what if you scheduled timeon three evenings and four weekend days to go holiday shopping?How would that change your experience of the holidays? What ifyou completed your shopping and shipping by the first of Decem-ber, leaving you the whole month to enjoy the holidays, the parties,and extra time with your family? What would that experience belike?Maybe you are already a careful planner for the holidays. What

if you were able to plan new rituals such as a spa day or a skitrip to replenish yourself? Maybe you could visit a nursing home, achildren’s hospital, or a homeless shelter to spread some goodwill.Being effective is not only about getting things done, but also

about enjoying what is important to us. Our inability or unwilling-ness to schedule the time to plan major events in our lives, such asholidays, contributes to our harried schedules. Having insufficienttime to get everything done leaves us with the experience of notfeeling satisfied with life. It’s the lack of choosing that contributesto our sense of being overwhelmed and stressed out, of falling be-hind, and any other terms we may use to describe not being incontrol of our lives.


Effectiveness is our key to experiencing a sense of accomplish-ment, pride, and peace. At the end of the day, ask yourself, ‘‘Did Ioperate in a way consistent with my vision, purpose, or goals inlife? Did I make a difference?’’ Or are you left with the naggingnotion of, ‘‘I didn’t even start half of what I set out to do today. Ileft a mountain of work behind me. And, oh, I remembered some-thing else that I promised to do but forgot.’’ We need to set up ourlives for effectiveness and structure our time so that we can havethe life we want to live.Effectiveness is at the core of living a satisfying life. You make

choices from moment to moment; you set a compass to guide yourlife. Along the way, you may encounter rough seas and may have tocorrect or change your course to navigate through them. The corepractices in this book will support you in being effective and pro-ductive and, more than anything, happy with the life that you’reliving. At the core of being effective is the ability to make choices.

Quantity vs. Quality

When my daughter was young, I, Rosemary, was a working singlemom who was trying to somehow get it all done. I was always in arush to get to work, to the store, and to school, and I felt caught upin a whirlwind that never stopped. When I picked my daughter upfrom child care, I was still winding down from work, rushing hometo cook dinner and help her with homework, and then off to bed.One evening, as I kissed her good-night, I had an epiphany. I real-ized that I had snagged my daughter into my whirlwind and shewas spinning as fast as I was. I knew that if I didn’t do somethingto stop the swirl, we were going to miss out on sharing a whole partof our lives together.I instituted what we called ‘‘us time’’—a time with no other

responsibilities or distractions, a time for us to converse each day.Picking her up from child care on my way home from work becameour special time together. I turned off the radio as we drove so thatwe could talk, and she would tell me what was happening in herlife. It was our way to reconnect and transition from business exec-utive and student to Mom and Daughter. Obviously, that wasn’t the


only time we were alone together, but, that short time in the carwas a wonderfully effective way to experience something truly im-portant together. With just twenty-four hours in a day, having evena half hour dedicated to being ‘‘in the moment’’ with someone im-portant to you can be the true definition of quality time.We think of time as something that can be controlled or manip-

ulated, and that, by doing so, we’ll be able to accomplish all of ourgoals. In truth, we have much more to do than time to do it in. Allthe time management in the world cannot counteract the realitythat there are only twenty-four hours in a day, of which about eightare usually designated for sleep.The source of productivity isn’t the quantity of things that you

complete; it’s completing the things that deliver the most quality inthe ways that you measure quality. For instance, you could measurequality in terms of satisfaction or in terms of impact.It is important to redefine what is important in terms of qual-

ity. It is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that as long as we arechecking off items on our lists, we are doing all right. That’s onlyhalf the story; the other half is about being mindful of what’s trulyimportant in our lives.

HOW EFFECTIVENESS DRAMATICALLYINCREASES PRODUCTIVITY

A natural outcome of being clear about what’s important to you,and of consciously choosing what you are doing and setting yourselfup to do it with all of your resources, is that you will be muchmore productive. The key to increasing your productivity (i.e., youroutput) is to work on your effectiveness.Last March, a client sent us a bouquet of ten beautiful red and

white tulips. When we got them, the directions said to cut off theends and put them in fresh warm water. We followed the directions,and all day long we had a touch of spring in the office. The nextday, we were out of the office and unable to water the flowers. Whenwe returned, the tulips had all drooped down around the vase.


It was sad to see them wilted like that; they were so vibrant theday before and a welcome addition to the office. We took them outof the vase, clipped their ends again, and poured in fresh warmwater. The next morning, the tulips were again standing up straightin their vase as though nothing had ever happened.We like to think of that story in terms of effectiveness. Flowers

are designed to bloom; all they need are the right conditions: water,nutrients, and sunlight. As human beings, we are designed to beeffective and productive. What gets in our way is that we don’tcreate the right conditions in our life to be effective and productive,and so we wilt, like a flower without enough water. Once we restorethe conditions that optimize our effectiveness, we find our produc-tivity in bloom again. You will learn in later chapters about thedifferent kinds of support you can create for yourself to restore theconditions you need.

Acting in Your Own Best Interest

If you recognize yourself in the stories of Elizabeth, Phil, and Ericat the beginning of the chapter, and see the futility of what you aredoing, that is an important step to doing what it takes to changeyour behavior. It is not enough to gain insights into how to struc-ture your time differently. You also need to shift the way that youthink about time.Let’s face it; the world isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

People are still going to send you e-mail, expecting an instant re-sponse, as if you have nothing else in the world to do but stare atyour screen, waiting for their message to come through so that youcan read it and respond. You are still going to be invited to meetingswhere 1) the outcome of the meeting is unclear, 2) people wanderin late and you restart again and again, 3) people respond to theire-mail and text messages while in the meeting, and 4) the modera-tor runs out of time and makes requests, pleas, and demands forfollow-up actions in the last two minutes. You are still going to havean unreasonable amount of work heaped on you without anyonethinking through whether there is enough time to do it all.There are some things that you can change and others that you


have to work around. The process of choosing what you can andcannot change gives you the power to use your time, energy, andfocus to accomplish what you deem is most important. It allowsyou to ‘‘have more time for you’’ and to take charge of your life.

THE DANCE BETWEEN EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

Sometimes you find yourself being extremely efficient at certaintasks during the day, but feeling quite ineffective by the end of theday.And sometimes you feel that you’ve had a very effective after-

noon, even when you know that the way you accomplished yourtasks was anything but efficient. How can this be?You say someone performs a task or job efficiently when they

achieve the result in the least amount of time with the least amountof energy and resources. In sports, you hear about a runner usinghis energy efficiently or a baseball pitcher throwing efficiently.Again, these individuals are doing the job with the least amount ofenergy, time, and resources.Effective behavior comes from being clear about what is most

important to you and then acting on it to fulfill that vision, value,or concern. We say, ‘‘She is an effective teacher,’’ or ‘‘This is aneffective method for doing xyz.’’ Effectiveness includes doing whatyou are doing because it serves your purpose or fulfills your objec-tives.Here’s an example you may recognize: How many times have

you just ‘‘dashed off’’ an e-mail to respond to a colleague, just to getit done, only to find five e-mails later that if you had stopped andpicked up the phone and discussed the issue, it would have beenresolved much more satisfactorily and quickly?When you are clear about what you want to accomplish and are

able to balance your time and resources to meet your goals, you arein the dance of effectiveness and efficiency. The elements are:


• Clarity about the exact objective• Finding the right balance between speed, quality, and resources (orprice)

When a situation is unclear or less well defined, using the ‘‘effi-ciency muscle’’ doesn’t work. When you head into action right awaywithout a clear picture of where you are headed, you may be themost efficient person at crossing items off your to-do list and doingpointless tasks that are not on your purpose list. None of this getsyou any closer to your goal.This book presents efficient processes and methodologies that

will support you in achieving your goals and that will help you beeffective at accomplishing what you say is most important.

THE PROCESS OF LIFE IS TO GENERATE THINGS

In our productivity and effectiveness workshops, group participantsare sometimes asked to make a list of everything they have to do.While they are writing, we’ll offer some tasks to consider adding totheir lists; for example, ‘‘Update your car registration, pay your bills,and schedule lunch with an old friend.’’After five minutes everyone is told to stop writing and asked,

‘‘What are you experiencing?’’Rich, a new hire at a company said, ‘‘Ugh. There’s so much to

do, I can’t even write it all down.’’Marcie, a young mother and an up-and-coming executive said,

‘‘I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. I’ve written only thethings that need to be done at work.’’ And everyone else chimed inwith similar responses.Asked if they wanted more time to write, everyone responded

in unison, ‘‘Yes.’’ When time was up five minutes later, Marcie com-mented, ‘‘The more time I take to write down the things that I needto do, the more anxious I get. The more anxious I get, the more I’mclear I don’t have the time to get it all done. But I have to get it alldone!’’


And that is the dilemma.Life is a generative process. As such, you will typically find you

have more to do, not less.Our minds work faster than our mouths, our hands, or our feet.

We will always—yes, always—generate more things to do, morethings to think about, more things to desire, and more and more.Research indicates that the average person talks to himself or her-self about 50,000 times a day.1 Generating more isn’t the problem.Failing to make choices is. It’s about choosing now, not later.

PRODUCTIVITY REQUIRES CONSTANT PRACTICE

You have already read why having too much to do is not your fault.Even so, you still have to deal with the reality of the tasks at hand.You didn’t create the overload, but you need to find a way to bringorder back to your life. We don’t like that we have a hole in theozone layer of our atmosphere, but it is a problem we need to fixnonetheless.Productivity comes from your experience, knowledge, and ex-

pertise. If you were to poll our friends and family, they will tell youthat we’re not perfect. We may not always be prompt and may notrespond to every e-mail or voice mail in a timely manner. And yethere we are, consulting, coaching, and training people in how to liveeffective lives. Even we wrestle with managing the pace, magnitude,and complexity of life. What is different, however, is that each ofus is able to accomplish more of what’s important to us than everbefore because we continually practice what we’ve learned aboutproductivity.Being productive as well as effective is a lifelong journey. It’s

also a daily practice. You will never possess productivity. You needto continually renew it. After you eat, you don’t stay full forever.You might have issues about what you eat, how much, or how little,but you know that eating is not something you do only once. Youknow that you have to eat every day to maintain your strength and


keep your body nourished. The same is true with any practice inwhich you want to achieve mastery. Whether you are learning tomeditate, play the piano, or clear your inbox, you need to do itconsistently every day. You can’t do it once and be done with it.That would be like saying, ‘‘I practiced the piano one time and nowI can play like a maestro.’’ In fact, being productive and effectivetakes daily practice.Yet, despite all the evidence, most people still believe that they

shouldn’t have to practice to gain proficiency. Why? For one thing,people tend to confuse hearing something for the first time andactually learning it. You may hear advice about being more effective.You may agree with what you hear. But actually putting it into prac-tice requires change—and it takes time.In reality, we often need to relearn something over and over

until it becomes a part of us. It’s not enough to say, ‘‘I have thisone insight and now I’m set.’’ Now that you’ve had that insight, youneed to transform it into an action that you can integrate into dailypractice. Subsequent chapters will provide maintenance practicesfor you to use to live an effective life.What does it take to become a master in effectiveness? In his

book Mastery, George Leonard talks about the ‘‘mastery curve,’’whereby learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts ofprogress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateausomewhat higher than the previous level. ‘‘To take the master’s jour-ney,’’ he says, ‘‘you have to practice diligently, striving to hone yourskills, to attain new levels of competence.’’2 And you have to bewilling to spend most of your time on a plateau—to keep practicingeven when you seem to be getting nowhere.The other problem is thinking that we already know how to

gain control. Many people think they already have the strategiesand practices they need to succeed amid the speed and complexityof our lives. Then we blame ourselves for not managing ourselveswell enough. We call these coping strategies. The next chapter ex-plores these options and why they fail.

2

THREE COPINGSTRATEGIES THATDON’T WORK

The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.—JAMES BALDWIN

Because we are often human doings, rather than human beings,we’ve cleverly devised ways to keep ourselves on top of thegreat mountain of things to do. As much as these tactics seem tohelp in the moment, they only trick us into thinking we are doingsomething about the problem.This chapter describes the three most common coping strate-

gies: procrastinating, multitasking, and saying you’re too busy. Weexplain why they fail and how eliminating them leads to greatersatisfaction, less stress, improved productivity and more time foryou.

STRATEGY 1: PROCRASTINATING

The dictionary definition of procrastination is to defer action; toput off until another day or time; to delay. A procrastinator is some-one who postpones work (often out of laziness or habitual careless-ness). Procrastination can be the culprit that hangs up projects and


puts people into emergency mode. When we wait until the last min-ute to get things done, it creates stress. When we identify ourselvesas procrastinators, we become self-fulfilling prophecies or prisonersof our self-indictments. Why would we ever put that label on our-selves? For some people, procrastinator has become an acceptablelabel, and its allure captures us in the trap of procrastination.

The Allure

People under the allure of procrastination often say things like:

• ‘‘The feeling of wanting to do it hasn’t hit me yet. Maybe I’ll be inthe mood later, so I’ll wait.’’

• ‘‘So many more good things could come up right now. I want to keepmy options open.’’

• ‘‘I can get that done later.’’• ‘‘I can count on myself to complete work at the last minute, becauseit’s the deadline that provides the discipline.’’

Part of the allure of procrastination is that it tricks you intothinking that things can actually happen later. The relief that youfeel by procrastinating is in not having to commit to the task now.However, it is a temporary relief, not a solution.As an example, your coworker is fretting and says to you, ‘‘We

need to get this report done, but I don’t have any time to squeezeit in.’’ You say, ‘‘Let me handle it. I can do it later.’’ Your coworkersays, ‘‘Wonderful. Copy me when you finish it, okay?’’You haven’t actually scheduled time to write the report. Instead,

by putting it off until sometime later, you achieve the followingresults:

• You buy yourself time. If you simply tell someone that you will dosomething later, most of the time people won’t press you as to when‘‘later’’ is.

• You leave your coworker thinking, ‘‘Great. She said that she’ll do itand that she’ll copy me, so I don’t have to worry about it.’’

Now both you and your coworker are freed up. You saved theday by saying that you would take on the task; your coworker thinks

Three Coping Strategies That Don’t Work 27

that you are a genius and gives you positive reinforcement for beingon top of the game. You’ve been able to feed your habit for beingthe hero by being the one who came up with the resolution, andyou didn’t have to spend any time to do the task—at least not yet.Now you can look for more things to do and more ways to save theday while receiving more positive reinforcement for your actions.

The Stress Cost

Despite the temporary relief and sense of accomplishment you feltwhen offering to take on the report, there is also a cost to both youand your coworker. By putting off the task to write the report untillater, you have ensured that you’ll be adding stress to your life andmaybe to your coworker’s life, too. By not even checking whetheryou have the time, let alone scheduling the time, you are buildingup tension around if, when, and how you are going to do this task.Also, when the deadline nears and you have to produce the re-

port, you will most likely end up delaying some other deliverablesthat you promised to somebody else, thereby adding more tensionand stress to follow through on your current tasks. It’s like a snow-ball, and it takes up psychic energy and psychic space for somethingthat you know you need to do.Here’s another example of the cost of procrastination. It is the

end of the year and you need to give your accountant year-endreports and receipts so that he can create your company’s finan-cials. The only thing holding him up is that you have not accountedfor all of the expenses that offset the revenue you received to re-duce your taxable income. It is exceedingly tedious to go throughtwelve months of expenses. You dread it and keep putting it off.You beat yourself up for not taking the one hour it might havetaken each month to do the job right. And because you are so disap-pointed in yourself for being in this predicament, you put if offeven longer.This is not the kind of work that you enjoy doing, which is why

you have put it off to begin with. Just the thought of finances,taxes, and money makes you queasy. Your palms sweat at the ideaof going back to last January and pulling out all those receipts. You


build a case around how awful this task is; the bigger the case, themore you justify why you don’t need to it right now. So you ‘‘awful-ize’’ the experience.Only now you are in the position of not being able to delay any

longer. Your accountant won’t prepare your tax return if you don’thave the information to him by the close of business today. Youknow that it will be nearly impossible to find another accountantwho will take you on as a client at this late date. If you don’t ac-count for your expenses today, Armageddon will come. You cannotprocrastinate any longer. This is it.You are drained emotionally by this process and having to spend

time that you could have used on something productive to catch upon a task that you should have handled throughout the year.

No Time to Delegate

Another cost of procrastination is there’s no time to delegate. Ifyou had been more proactive in starting the task of gathering theyear’s receipts, you could have enlisted help. You could have hireda bookkeeper or a college student. Now you can’t give the job toanybody.You think, ‘‘If only I had blocked out time every month to do

my finances, I would have been able to spread out this task through-out the entire year and my finances would be in beautiful shape.Everything would have been checked and double-checked, and therewouldn’t have been any errors. Now I only have eight hours to domy finances. I will get them done; however, I won’t have time tocheck for errors, and I will be stressed out for the entire day.’’Getting things done at the last minute gives you the illusion of

productivity, because you think that as long as you get the job donein the minimum amount of time, there is no other cost. You thinkthat the job you are putting off isn’t preying on your mind andthat it isn’t costing you anything. You don’t like the rush, but you’llcome through and do it once again. And, yes again, you’ll comethrough at the cost of unnecessary stress, panic, and questionableresults.


The Impact

One of the areas of my (Rosemary’s) business that I resist is therecord-keeping and accounting. I just don’t want to do it. I dislikedoing it. I find it to be too detail-oriented and tiresome for mytaste. As long as I get the invoices out, checks cashed, credit cardsprocessed, and the bills paid, life works, right?The danger here is allowing the thinking that ‘‘I don’t want to do

it’’—and therefore don’t need to do it right now—run the show. Itdulls the senses to the true cost and impact of procrastination. Thetemporary fix that we get from delaying a decision to take action willinevitably come back to haunt us. At some point the piper will needto get paid. This item will need to be paid attention to—and resistingit or delaying doesn’t change the situation; it only prolongs the agonyof not doing it. We all know this intellectually, but that doesn’t seemto be sufficient to change our behavior. Taking stock of the true im-pact that procrastination has on us emotionally, physically, and ener-getically may help to create some momentum and action.Consider this scenario: There is a pile of papers, receipts, in-

voices, and bills that need to be sorted and handled. You say toyourself, ‘‘I don’t want to do it right now. I’ll get to it later.’’ Andyou turn your attention to something else. A few hours later, youlook at the pile again, with disdain and disgust, and say, ‘‘I still don’twant to do it,’’ but this time you’re beginning to feel the pangs ofguilt and worry because you have a vague sense that some bills aredue and deadlines are approaching. It’s difficult to face this justnow, and besides, you have a meeting in a few minutes, so yousoothe yourself and say, ‘‘Tomorrow, for sure. I’ll get to it.’’ Thatnight you wake up suddenly with the nagging thought that a pay-ment to a vendor is due today and the invoice is in that pile! Youresolve to tackle the pile of papers first thing in the morning.The next day arrives and your morning goes awry when a cus-

tomer calls with an urgent request. It is late afternoon when youreceive an e-mail from your manager asking for one of the items inthat pile that you’ve been procrastinating. Your stomach churns andyou begin to turn your attention to the pile again. Now you’re angrywith yourself for delaying and begin screaming to yourself, ‘‘Why


do I always put things off!’’ You’re worried that your boss doesn’tthink you’re keeping up. You pride yourself on paying bills on time;now your payment is late with a valued vendor and you’re con-cerned about your reputation. You begin to doubt your own abilityto stay ahead. You begin to justify in your mind that you had toomany other things to do and just couldn’t get to it any sooner. Youbegin to blame others for constantly adding things to your alreadyfull plate. You feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and disempowered(with a dollop of shame for good measure).The impact of procrastination on our psyches and well being is

immense. The impact shakes us at our core. We begin to doubtourselves and feel guilty, shameful, and inadequate. The impact hasa cumulative effect—every time we procrastinate on something, itdeepens and reinforces our self-doubt and erodes our well being.This costs us in terms of our ability to be present in our lives,because when we’re distracted by our self-berating, we aren’t ableto be our most resourceful and effective.If you want to fulfill your purpose in life, then you need to

handle your finances. It doesn’t mean that you have to do them; itmeans that you have to have them handled.Getting back to one’s purpose—for example, why you are en-

gaged in your business in the first place—helps you to see thatwhen you don’t maintain accurate information on your finances,you put a lid on your future and the contributions you are here tomake. Purpose helps people shift the situation; it brings clarity. Andin this example, clarity about how to handle finances will allow youto experience the following:

• Relief from knowing that your business finances are in order andthere to support you.

• Calm from knowing what’s real and what’s not real, so you can plan,act, do, adjust, and take on new marketing opportunities.

• Peace of mind from knowing that because your finances are wellmanaged, you can spend more time being creative (by contrast, notknowing your financial status can limit your creativity).

• Certainty in knowing what the score is, since you are the one playingthis game of life.


Life is an important game, but it’s still a game. And if you don’tknow what the score is, how can you ever know if you are winning?

Pay Now or Pay Later with Interest

Everyone, even the most efficient and effective person, has some-thing they resist doing. We’ve all avoided a job by shipping it off to‘‘Later Land.’’ The question becomes how much do you pay for thatresistance in the long run?Procrastination is a way of trying to get out of having to pay

the time for doing something. We all play the game thinking that‘‘later’’ will never come and we will never have to pay the time to dothe task. But there’s no avoiding the reality that you’ll have to paythe time at some point. Even if you delegate or pay someone elseto do the job, you are still paying for it to happen. The questionbecomes: Do you want to pay now or do you want to pay later withinterest and penalties?

We Deceive Ourselves

The scientific method is a systematic means of collecting and ana-lyzing data objectively. Without some level of external objectivity,we are tempted to automatically look for data that supports ouroriginal assumptions or hypotheses. We are predisposed to lookonly for evidence that proves our perspectives and to reject infor-mation that doesn’t verify our thinking. As Roger Bacon, athirteenth-century philosopher and early developer of the scientificmethod, might have described it today, human beings are pro-grammed to deceive themselves.Because we are programmed to deceive ourselves, we find that

procrastination is part of that self-deception. We deceive ourselvesinto thinking that we have more time later, and we don’t.The scientific method that we are proposing here is a way to

have checks and balances so that you can be more objective; so thatyou can be the cause of how you live and choose how you use thetime available in your life. Without those checks and balances, youwill deceive yourself, by design.


Using Fear as the Culprit

When people procrastinate, it is often because they are afraid ofdoing a specific task, usually because they don’t think they can doit or do it well, and because they are fearful of what other peoplemight think. This underlying fear of failing is why we don’t want todo the task and why we look for ways to avoid it altogether.It’s not a lack of confidence, although that may be part of the

fear; it is usually something much broader than not feeling self-assured. Fear may be present when you make a commitment to dosomething and then avoid it at all costs. In those moments, peoplesometimes do things to numb themselves from the fear, like watch-ing television. For others, it might be eating, exercising, or evenhousecleaning. What distraction keeps you numb to the fear?Some people can’t stand having something ‘‘hanging over their

heads,’’ and that engages them to act. The thought of not doingsomething to complete the task is torturous for them. They’ll say,‘‘It doesn’t make sense to delay the inevitable; get it done and get itover with.’’For many other people, though, the opposite is true. Then we

find ourselves misusing time, not completing tasks when we say wewill, and it often comes from being paralyzed by fear. You need to goto the doctor, but find that it’s easier not to make that appointmentbecause you are afraid the doctor will find something wrong. Youput off writing to people on your holiday mailing list because youdon’t know what to say to them. Not wanting to sound trite, youjust don’t send the cards at all. These are examples of how the fearof failure becomes the accomplice to procrastination.

STRATEGY 2: THE MYTH OF MULTITASKING

We have been studying the multitasking phenomenon for manyyears, and we want to share this lesson with you: You may thinkyou can do two or three different things using different senses at


the same time, but experience tells us that you can’t—not withouta sharp drop in quality.Every Saturday, we have a phone conference with a close group

of friends and business associates. We have been meeting regularlyfor four years, and we help each another confront the self-limitingbeliefs that we have about ourselves. It is an intimate group. Thismorning, our leader said, ‘‘I want everyone here to agree that you’llbe 100 percent present during the call and not be making breakfast,checking e-mail, or doing something else for the next hour.’’ Every-one in the group was very upset from that request. There was com-plaining, dissension, and outright refusal. No one could make thepromise not to multitask during the phone call. We know the pit-falls of multitasking; we teach others to set up structures against it.Yet, in that moment, it was impossible to promise to be there ‘‘100percent.’’After forty-five minutes of group conversation, one of us said,

‘‘The best I can do is promise to keep this request in front of meduring the call, and I’m going to ask that you, as our leader, restatethe promise at the beginning of each call and mention it again ahalf hour into our call. And if I find myself drifting away, I’ll comeback. And that’s the best I can do, because, even after all theseyears, I am still bitten by the bug of multitasking.’’Multitasking is not mind-wandering, when you let your

thoughts drift off while you are doing a task. Multitasking is theconscious act of engaging in another activity while you are doingwhat you first set out to do.

When I, Rosemary, was young, growing up as the oldest of sevenchildren, my mother showed me that multitasking was the way toget things done. In fact, when my mother would see my dad comehome from work and just do one thing and then another ratherthan everything at once, she would say things like ‘‘Wouldn’t mylife be nice if I could take on just one thing at a time?’’ So I learnedthat multitasking was not only useful but also an honorable thingto do. It was the way to meet everyone’s needs.When I entered the workforce in my early adulthood, I managed

several companies by multitasking. I even hired people based on


their ability to multitask. I had a scoring system, and I would nothire people who didn’t score high at multitasking during their inter-view. At that point in my life, I still thought I could get it all done;after all, I was one of the best jugglers out there. I accomplished alot. It was only when I began looking at what results are produced,and what is and isn’t effective, that I began to see the cost of multi-tasking.I have studied the perils of multitasking. I have even taught

people about its hidden costs, and yet I am still bitten by the bug. Ifind that I have to sit on my hands during some phone calls so thatI will not do something else. I am clear that multitasking takes awaymy focus. I am clear that I cannot give 100 percent of myself tomore than one thing at a time. I am clear that, when I do give100 percent of my attention while I’m listening and speaking withsomeone, we move things forward in a much more effective way.Even though I know this, I’ll still find myself multitasking.This is why I like to talk about multitasking as an addiction. I’m

no longer the little girl helping my mother take care of everybodyand do everything. I’m not even the young woman juggling twobusinesses and a school-age daughter. I am now someone whoknows there is a cost. Even so, I am still inclined to multitask.

Degrees of Awareness

Let’s say there are 100 degrees of awareness of multitasking. Atfirst we have a 20 percent awareness of our habit of multitasking.Then, when we start to examine our habit a bit more, we gain an-other 20 percent awareness.Later, we adopt some practices to manage our habit, and now

we are up to about 60 percent awareness.Now we say, ‘‘That’s good enough. I have practices I can count

on. I’m done with my habit.’’ Yet we are never, ever done. Habitsdie hard! Our habits lie dormant, looking for ways to resurface.Habits often reside beneath the surface of our consciousness—andunless we remain vigilant and aware, they will sneak up on us andreclaim their place in our repertoire of behavior.


The Cost of Multitasking

With all the technology available to us today, and the amount oftime that we spend working in the virtual world, it is critical tounderstand how strong the habit of multitasking is and how largethe cost is.Do you remember Eric’s story at the beginning of the book?

He’s the insurance sales executive whose wife caught him respond-ing to messages on his cell phone while he was driving on the ex-pressway with his two children in the backseat. Eric admitted towriting e-mails while driving, endangering his own life and the livesof others on the road and in his car. After realizing the possibleimpact of his multitasking, he became an evangelist for correctingthe behavior and said, ‘‘I do not want this to happen to the peoplewho work for me. If I was that out of control with multitasking, itcould happen to them, too.’’Fifteen years ago I, Rosemary, had an experience that cost

$3,500 in car repairs and showed me how costly multitasking anddriving can be. I was on my way to work and traffic was very slowon my exit ramp. We were backed up, everything was stop and go,and I decided that this would be a great time to put on my lipstick.A flatbed truck was in front of me, and somehow while looking inthe mirror and putting on my lipstick I managed to take my footoff of the brake pedal and my car gently rolled into the truck.I was shocked at the amount of damage this created and at such

a slow speed. It’s easy to relate to the costs of multitasking when itcomes to operating a car, but there are similar, if not greater, costsin so many other areas of our lives.It is easy to see how dangerous multitasking can be when we

are driving. Whether we are driving and answering e-mail, talkingon the phone, eating, or trying to apply makeup, we are endanger-ing ourselves and others by dividing our attention. But there aresimilar, if not greater, costs in so many other areas of our lives.

Multitasking as a Human Capacity

Your brain can process words much faster than you can speak them.The average person’s speaking speed is approximately 165 words


per minute, but our brains can process several times that number.This means that when we listen to the average person talk, ourbrains have the capacity to attend to other things.1

We also have an amazing capacity to perceive many things atonce. Think about it: We can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch all atthe same time.There are parallels between our amazing capacity and the capac-

ity of a computer. On your computer, you can have many differentprograms open at once. You can be sending and receiving e-mail,word processing, reading a spreadsheet, and browsing the Web atthe same time. However, at some point, if you have too many appli-cations open, you reach a maximum capacity and your computercrashes.We, too, are wonderfully created to handle many different tasks

at once. Our bodies are phenomenal in their ability to multitask.However, just as there are limits to how much oxygen we can havein our bloodstream before the oxygen reaches a dangerous level,there are limits to how much we can multitask before it overwhelmsour capacity to be effective.Multitasking is not always bad; in fact, there are times when it

is positively beneficial. When left unexamined, however, multitask-ing has a cost. And before you know it, you could be in critical carebecause multitasking doesn’t have any symptoms. You feel goodbecause you and everyone around you can see that you are gettingthings done. People see multitasking as a sign of strength. It showshow talented we are. However, we often don’t know when enoughis enough.

Structures to Avoid Multitasking

Do you feel powerless over multitasking? Like being in a recoveryprogram, where you find people to support you to break your addic-tion, you, too, may need a support structure to stay focused on (or‘‘stay present to’’) who or what is in front of you.For example, before a conference call with a client, give yourself

five minutes to clear your mind and eliminate distractions. Cleanoff your desk and make sure there is nothing on the computer


screen other than what you are doing with the client. Create andkeep an expected outcome of the call in front of you so that youcan stay focused. It takes muscle; it takes conscious effort.Try telling yourself, ‘‘Nothing else is important right now. For

the next hour, I can’t do anything else anyway, so let me relax andenjoy this call.’’ You want to be present to what you are going toaccomplish on the call so that you can create that outcome with theclient. Putting in these structures will allow you to be much morefocused and in the moment, which helps avoid multitasking.

Discerning When and When Not to Multitask

In pursuit of being effective, it is important to discern when it doesand doesn’t make sense to multitask. By setting up a structure, youcan make room for your habit by choosing when to multitask andwhen not to. Then, when there is blank space in your calendar, orwhen you are off somewhere on a walk, you can let your habit outof the box. It’s baseball season again, and a wonderful opportunityfor multitasking is watching the Red Sox on television. You can cookdinner and clean up, wash and fold laundry, because neither theRed Sox nor the laundry needs 100 percent of anyone’s attention(although, if you’ve ever watched them leave a relief pitcher in toolong in the eighth inning, you can’t be sure about that).Then there are times to say, ‘‘Okay, habit, you’ve had your time;

I’m focused now.’’ Once you have a structure in place that allowsyou to stay focused, then if you drift off, oops, you drifted off, butnow at least you can get back on track again.There are great benefits to multitasking. However, what we

need to ask ourselves is when do the benefits outweigh the costs?Multitasking per se is not bad. It can be an asset when doing

things that don’t require our full attention. But we need to discernwhen multitasking is appropriate and when it is not. Like yelling ina library, there are times when multitasking does not suit the situa-tion. We’ve certainly seen what can happen if we try to multitaskwhile driving.When you see multitasking as a strength, you must choose


when to use that strength. That’s all. There’s no reason to vilify it.It is a matter of discerning when it is time to multitask.

STRATEGY 3: DON’T BLAME ME, I’M TOO BUSY

There is a collective empathy around being overwhelmed: I won’tblame you for being too busy to meet your commitments if youdon’t blame me. You can’t have two conversations in the same daywithout someone telling you how busy or how overwhelmed theyare, or how much they have to do. It’s the Overwhelm Epidemic,the overwhelm excuse.The sense of having too much to do has crept upon us slowly.

We are like the frog that sits placidly in a pot of boiling water be-cause the temperature has increased too slowly to perceive thechange. Similarly, having overcommitted lives has become an ac-cepted condition for us.Thirty years ago, if you complained about having too much to

do, your coworkers would have said, ‘‘Well, why don’t you managethings better?’’ Now, it’s commonplace for people to one-up eachother in terms of who has more to do. Being inundated is seen asthe new normal. If you are not swamped, then you are perceived asbeing a slacker.The word overwhelmedmay have bad connotations to some peo-

ple. ‘‘We’re not overwhelmed. Not us. Not the smart ones. Not thededicated ones. We can power through it.’’But sometimes you say, ‘‘Of course I can’t do it. I have too much

to do.’’ The good news is that we are able to acknowledge that thereis always going to be too much to do. The bad news is that we useit as an excuse to not do the things that we want to do, like to do,or need to do.We need new practices and habits that will make us effective in

this world with its increased pace, volume, and complexity. There isa phenomenon called an inattentional blindness, which is the inabil-ity to see what is right in front of us.2 In this case, it is the inabilityto see what is causing us to be ineffective. In the next chapter, youwill see why and what to do about it.

3

TIME AND YOU

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.—ALBERT EINSTEIN

‘‘Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems likean hour,’’ Einstein said. ‘‘Sit with a pretty girl for an hour,and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.’’1 A common experiencethat demonstrates the relativity of time is how the older you get,the faster time seems to pass. For children, summer seems to last awhole year long, which is a child’s way of describing that summerwent on forever. By the time you’re in high school, it seemed likesummer lasted two weeks. If you talk with people in their seventiesand eighties, they will tell you that the three months of summerfeel like a few days in their lives.

HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE TIME DIFFERENTLY

To illustrate the relativity of time, let’s meet Fred and Amy.Fred wakes up every morning at 5:30 a.m. He sets an alarm

clock each night, even though he wakes up each morning before it


goes off. He promptly gets out of bed, puts on his running gear andshoes (which he has laid out the night before), and goes outside tostart his thirty-minute run. When he returns, he heads for theshower, shaves, dresses (he has laid out his suit, tie, socks, andshoes the night before), makes a protein shake (he has cut the fruitfor the shake the night before), and drinks it while thumbingthrough the Wall Street Journal. At precisely 6:45 a.m., he is in hiscar heading to the office.Amy wakes up every morning at 5:30 a.m. and curses the alarm

clock as she slams the snooze button a minimum of three times. Atlast, she leaps out of bed when she realizes that she is in danger ofmissing an important client meeting. Like a bullet train, she dashesdownstairs to put the laundry that she washed last night into thedryer so that she’ll have clean socks to wear today. Then she runsto the bathroom, turns on the shower, and, as the water runs andgets hot, flies downstairs to turn on the computer before leapingback up the stairs to the bathroom and into the shower.After the shower, while curling her hair, Amy listens to voice

mail messages on her cell phone. She runs to her closet to dress,only to change clothes twice because the first jacket she put on hada stain on the lapel and the pants she planned to wear had a buttonmissing. Then she races down to the laundry room to retrieve theclean socks from the dryer. Moving to her computer, she quicklyglances at her e-mail to see if any important messages arrived over-night before she turns it off. Then she dashes to the kitchen todrink a glass of orange juice and is out the door driving to the trainstation. After a full-out sprint in her high heels, she catches the6:45 a.m. train. This makes up a bit for the morning workout shemissed.Although Fred and Amy completed their morning routines in

the same amount of time, their experiences of time were different.

Fred: Mr. On-Time

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘‘Look at how much more effi-cient Fred is. His morning routine is organized and, as a result, itseemed much less harried and stressed. And he was able to get

Time and You 41

in his workout, too.’’ Sounds good. However, if this is Fred’s onlyrelationship to time, if he is always on time, if that is his first andonly organizing principle, then he may have difficulty respondingto changes or being flexible when the unexpected arises. However,we can all see how reliable he is, what a great trait that is, and howwell he can be perceived on a team.

Amy: Ms. Make It All Happen

Then there’s Amy. Some of you are likely thinking, ‘‘Slow down, girl.The world won’t stop if you take two minutes and eat a bowl ofcereal.’’ However, when you are pushed up against a deadline, whenyour clients say they ‘‘have to have that data tonight or else,’’ whowould you rather count on? If you turn to Fred, he may say, ‘‘It’snot in my schedule; you’ll need to find someone else,’’ or, ‘‘I can doit, but not until Friday.’’ Amy, however, will move, shift, juggle, andcome through for your client one more time.How Amy views an hour is utterly different from how Fred

views the same hour. One is not right or wrong or better than theother. However, allowing ourselves to think that everyone elsethinks about time the way we do is a setup for disaster.

I’M IN THE ZONE

Do you know what it’s like to get into a zone and lose all sense oftime? It is a great place to be because it lets you accomplish a greatdeal of work. On the other hand, you can become so focused onsomething that you may overlook other commitments and delivera-bles you promised and even neglect your well-being. You don’t stopto sleep or eat properly, the justification being that you are doingsomething that is as important. Your response to the situation is,‘‘Do what you have to do to get it done at all costs!’’ When you reachthis point, it is useful to schedule sufficient amounts of time inyour calendar to complete the work and to set alarms to remindyourself when to start and stop working.


If you need to be up and running by 6:30 a.m., then set thealarm for 6:00 a.m. and give yourself thirty minutes to transitionfrom a sleeping state to a waking state (most people cannot stopon a dime, and cannot start on one, either). If, once in motion,you’re a whirlwind, then you’ll need time to power down. So setreminders for yourself. If you need to leave for a meeting at 2:00p.m., set an alarm to power down from what you’re working on ahalf hour beforehand, so that you can come to a complete stop attwo and head out to the meeting.We recommend that people learn not to fight these tendencies,

but to work with them. Realize there isn’t anything ‘‘wrong’’ withthe way you are, but you’ll need to make allowances and accommo-dations to enhance your effectiveness.

RECOGNIZING DIFFERENT BEHAVIORS ABOUT TIME

Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist who studied societies and cul-tures, wrote The Silent Language, which is about the two distinctways in which people experience time: monochronic and poly-chronic.2

Monochronic Behaviors

Hall wrote that monochrones see time as fixed, rigid, and absolute.They do one thing at a time. They view time commitments ascritical. They are committed to jobs and projects. They are task-oriented. They adhere to plans, emphasize promptness always, andcan be transactional in how they look at completing projects. Fred,‘‘Mr. On-Time’’ from our earlier example, practices monochronic be-haviors.Monochronic behaviors are huge strengths. Without that devo-

tion to production, planes and trains would neither depart nor ar-rive on time, assembly lines would be spectacularly unproductive,and many other task-time-based events would be impossible.

Time and You 43

Polychronic Behaviors

Hall observed that polychrones perceive time quite differently. Theysee time as flexible. For a polychrone, a moment is capable of hold-ing many events simultaneously. So they tend to do many things atonce. They view deadlines as objectives rather than commitments.They are highly distractible, too. Polychrones are committed to peo-ple and relationships more than they are to time-related obliga-tions. They are more inclined than monochrones to change theirplans based on the significance of a relationship. Amy, ‘‘Ms. MakeIt All Happen’’ from our earlier example, practices polychronic be-haviors.

Increasing Our Range of Motion

Have you ever awakened from a night’s sleep to find that your neckis sore and that you have a limited range of motion when attempt-ing to move your head from side to side? Our preferences for prac-ticing monochronic or polychronic behaviors can also restrict ourrange of motion inside of that experience of time.You have an opportunity to expand your range. And why

shouldn’t you? The wider your range, the more you can select op-tions that fit the circumstances. Now you’re not responding onlyone way—the way your natural tendency is. Instead you are moreflexible and agile. Overall, you are more effective.People governed by polychronic behaviors, who are more fo-

cused on relationships and the achievements that people make inproject work, sometimes tend to feel intimidated by people who aredeadline- and results-driven. Often, polychrones sit in judgment ofmonochrones, and vice versa. Polychrones hear, ‘‘You’re not com-mitted,’’ or ‘‘You’re not reliable.’’ And monochrones hear, ‘‘You aremore committed to getting the task done than you are to getting itdone right,’’ or ‘‘You miss opportunities to look at how things arechanging around you, irrespective of your deadlines.’’These judgments do no one any good. They thwart the true

power of what can happen when both perceptions are accepted andpracticed.


Overcoming Our Different Time Perspectives

The Ladder of Inference is a model developed by Chris Argyris3 thatdescribes the process by which we make conclusions. The climb upthe ladder starts with data: Something happens. Based on the data,the event(s) that happened, we assign meaning. Based on thatmeaning, we make assumptions. Based on those assumptions, wedraw conclusions. Based on those conclusions, we form beliefs.Based on those beliefs, we take action or inaction. Then we lookonly for data going forward that supports the conclusions that wehave made.In this example, we start out with the raw data, as if we had a

video camera impartially recording the events as they happen. At9:00 a.m., we see seven people in a meeting room sitting around atable. At 9:15 a.m., we see Leslie walk through the door and jointhe other people at the table. Our next step is to sort through theraw data and select what to pay attention to, and then to start ananalysis of the event. Here is the step-by-step analytical processmost people will follow:

• Focus on the fact that Leslie arrived fifteen minutes after everyoneelse.

• Assign meaning to this selected data. We say, ‘‘Leslie’s late!’’• Make assumptions about Leslie being late. We say, ‘‘She thinks that

her time is more valuable than ours.’’• Draw conclusions based on our assumptions. ‘‘Leslie isn’t committed

to this project. We can’t trust her to do her part to get the job done.’’• Form beliefs based on our conclusions. ‘‘Leslie is not a team player.

I mean, if she can’t even do the basics of showing up on time, how can weever depend on her around the big commitments?’’

• Take action based on our beliefs. ‘‘We need to either micromanageLeslie or get her off the team. We definitely cannot give her somethingthat needs to be done by a certain time.’’

• Filter out any data that runs contrary to our belief that Leslie doesnot respect other people’s time. We will not notice the next ten meetingswhere she arrives at 9:00 a.m. sharp. We will only pay attention when sheshows up late.

Time and You 45

If we go back to the raw data of what happened, all we can sayfor certain is that seven people gathered around a table at 9:00 andone person arrived at 9:15. That’s it. But we made it mean some-thing else: ‘‘Leslie isn’t committed; you can’t trust her; she’s notreliable; she’s not a team member; and we’re not going to assignher work.’’Now, if we said to Leslie, ‘‘We agreed to meet at nine and you

arrived at 9:15. What happened?’’ and she said, ‘‘Oh, my car brokedown on my way to the train station and I had to get it towed,’’ wemight assign an entirely different meaning to Leslie’s lateness,which would change the nature of our interaction.As human beings, we cannot help but take trips up the Ladder

of Inference. What we can do is notice when we have climbed theladder and confused our assumptions for truth. Whenever we usethe verb ‘‘is’’ to define a person’s actions—‘‘Leslie is late; she is nottaking this meeting seriously’’—we have made an assumption abouta specific set of data. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong withmaking this assumption; however, it may be that the assumptionwe made is far from accurate about the actual situation.It’s easy to draw an unfavorable conclusion about people who

have time preferences that are different from our own. But doingso can impede our effectiveness. To be effective and productive,both personally and organizationally, we need to embrace the con-tributions offered by both polychronic and monochronic time orien-tations.

TIME SIGNATURES

Once, during a radio interview, the highly acclaimed British soul-pop singer Seal described how he creates music. ‘‘I like to use differ-ent types of time signatures when I write,’’ he said.On a sheet of music, a time signature consists of a pair of num-

bers (such as ‘‘4/4,’’ but written one number over the other withouta fraction line) that appears near the beginning of a musical staff


(the five horizontal lines). It is one of the first things you see whenyou read music, immediately preceding the notes to play. You haveto know what the time signature is to determine how many beatsare in each measure so that you can play the piece. The time signa-ture tells you how much ‘‘musical’’ time is in each frame.It’s a lovely way to think about time. Our lives have only so

many measures. How do we wish to fill them? What do we want thebeat to be?It isn’t too far a leap for us to think about the time in our lives,

and that each measure of music represents a season of our lifetime.We need to consider what we want to accomplish. What do we wantto create?Being productive does not necessarily mean you are getting

more done, but you are accomplishing what you want in your life,knowing that you are the composer. You get to decide the pace, therhythm, and the time signature for your life’s song. If you don’tmake those decisions, the music will never be created. The bottomline is you get to write and perform the song you want playing inyour life. In Part Two, we’ll take you through a step-by-step processof articulating what is important in your life and identifying whatyou want to spend more time doing.

KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT

Th e life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Th ose who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.

W. J. DAVISON

OWTTRP A

4

BEING CLEAR ABOUTWHAT IS IMPORTANT

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the rightwind.

—SENECA

What will you do with your allocation of time on this planet?Who will you become? What will you have? What will you

leave behind? When you know the answers to these questions, youwill have clarity about what you want to accomplish with your life.Knowing these answers will give rise to what will enrich and enlivenyour life. It allows you to experience satisfaction, joy, and content-ment with your life because it aligns with your own personal com-pass. When you have clarity, then all of a sudden you are in thedriver’s seat with your hands on the steering wheel and your footon the gas pedal.Being clear about what you are up to in life and where you are

headed lets you set your internal GPS. Now you’ll know your nextsteps. What’s more, choosing what not to do will be much simpler.Being unclear about what is most important in your life can

lead to winding roads, detours, and bridges that may or may nottake you to your destination. (Now, that might be fine for some


people—maybe that’s what they want from life.) The potential dan-ger in not having clarity about what you want to do with your lifeis that it leaves you wide open to handling other people’s issues andconcerns, other people’s desires, other people’s emergencies . . .without ever getting to your own life.In this chapter we invite you to engage in the following inquiry:

• What do you want?• What is most important to you?• What is the difference you want to make?

The answers to these questions will illuminate your path.

DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT

One of the keys to being productive, effective, and gloriously satis-fied with your life is to get crystal clear about what is important toyou, what matters the most to you, and why. When you are clearabout what’s important, you will find yourself engaging in purpose-ful actions to create and accomplish what you intend in life. Some-times we are not wholly aware of what’s most important to us. Youcan begin to gain greater clarity by considering your answers to thefollowing questions:

• What do you long for?• What do you strive for?• Who do you look up to?• What would you choose to do if you had limited time and resources?• What do you consider to be the most important future contributionthat you’ll make?

• What do you give more than ordinary consideration or notice to?• What has a considerable influence on your life?• What holds a prominent place in your life?• What comes forward when you contemplate these questions: Whatdo you see as having the most meaning in your life? What do youcare about most? What is most sacred to you?

Being Clear About What Is Important 51

Your responses to these questions will help get you in touchwith what is truly important in your life. Consider that most of usdon’t know what is truly important to us. We know what we thinkshould be important—rarely, though, have we boldly exploredwhat, without question, is of utmost importance in our lives.What matters to you? What is essentially true to and for you?

I’m not talking about fleshly desires or worldly goods, but whatnaturally drives, motivates, fuels, arouses, calls, excites, interests,and satisfies you. What are you curious about? What brings you joy,ease, and laughter? Given all the things that you could do, whatattracts you most? What do you find yourself thinking or talkingabout, even advocating for?We’ve created a series of exercises to help you contemplate and

clarify what is important to you.

Exercise: What Really Matters?

If you had more time, what would you do with it? What wouldyou have that you currently do not have? Who would you be?To use this exercise, you’ll need a few sheets of paper, pen,

and a timer, alarm clock, or stopwatch. The questions are de-signed to identify 1) what you consider the juice of life and 2)what you want more out of in life. Have fun with the questions,be playful and spontaneous, go with what comes to mind first,and see what emerges.

Question 1

Let’s say that you had all the time (and resources) in the worldto do whatever you wanted. What would you do? (Go crazy here;write down whatever comes to mind. Set your timer for twominutes and challenge yourself to write for the entire timewithout going back and editing. Go for quantity; the more itemsyou can list, the better.)

Question 2

Take a look at what you’ve written in answer to question 1.Next, identify your favorite items from the list you’ve made.


Which things are the most fun, bring the most joy, create themost satisfaction or reward, and bring the most pleasure?Which items enliven you and call to you? Select the items thatyou want to spend more time doing. See if you can narrow thelist down to between ten and fifteen items.

Question 3

Take a look at what you’ve written in answer to question 2. Ifyou spent more of your life doing more of the things you haveon your list, then how would you be experiencing life? Howwould you be feeling? Check all that apply in the Feelings In-ventory shown in table 4-1.

Question 4

Take a look at the items you’ve checked off in table 4-1. It is alist of the feelings you experience while you are engaging inthe activities listed in question 2 that bring you the most satis-faction, reward, and pleasure. Now, what needs are being metwhen you engage in these activities and experience these ac-companying feelings? For example, if you feel appreciative,happy, and satisfied as a result of doing garden work, then youmay be meeting your needs for beauty, self-expression, andchallenge. Revisit your responses to question 2 and review yourFeelings Inventory (table 4-1) again, and check all the fulfilledneeds that apply in the Needs Inventory shown in table 4-2.We intrinsically value the activities that meet our needs.

Our behavior is guided by our drive to fulfill needs. Considerthat everything on your calendar is there because it fills a needthat you have. Consciously or unconsciously, we seek every av-enue to meet our needs. When our needs are met, we are ener-gized and likely to experience the feelings described in theFeeling Inventory table. When our needs are not met, then weare drained of energy and suffer distraction and distress.

Question 5

Our guess is that you want more time to experience the emo-tions you selected in the Feelings Inventory. These feelings are


Table 4-1. Feelings inventory.

Source: Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas,CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2003), 212.

▫ Absorbed▫ Adventurous▫ Affectionate▫ Alert▫ Alive▫ Amazed▫ Amused▫ Animated▫ Appreciative▫ Aroused▫ Astonished▫ Awed▫ Blissful▫ Breathless▫ Buoyant▫ Calm▫ Carefree▫ Centered▫ Cheerful▫ Clearheaded▫ Comfortable▫ Complacent▫ Composed ▫ Confident▫ Compassionate▫ Contented▫ Cool▫ Dazzled▫ Delighted▫ Eager▫ Elated▫ Ecstatic▫ Effervescent▫ Enchanted▫ Encouraged ▫ Energetic▫ Engrossed▫ Enlivened

▫ Enthusiastic▫ Empowered▫ Enthralled▫ Excited▫ Exhilarated▫ Expansive▫ Exuberant▫ Fascinated▫ Fulfilled▫ Free▫ Friendly▫ Glad▫ Gleeful▫ Glorious▫ Glowing▫ Good-humored▫ Grateful▫ Gratified▫ Happy▫ Helpful▫ Hopeful▫ Inquisitive▫ Inspired▫ Interested ▫ Intrigued▫ Invigorated▫ Involved▫ Joyous, Joyful▫ Jubilant▫ Lively▫ Loving▫ Mellow▫ Merry ▫ Moved▫ Openhearted▫ Optimistic▫ Overjoyed▫ Overwhelmed

▫ Passionate▫ Peaceful▫ Perky▫ Pleasant▫ Pleased▫ Proud▫ Quiet▫ Radiant▫ Rapturous▫ Refreshed▫ Rejuvenated▫ Relaxed▫ Relieved▫ Safe▫ Satisfied▫ Secure▫ Sensitive▫ Serene▫ Spellbound▫ Splendid▫ Still▫ Stimulated▫ Surprised▫ Sympathetic▫ Tender▫ Thankful▫ Thrilled▫ Tickled▫ Touched▫ Tranquil▫ Trusting▫ Upbeat▫ Vibrant▫ Warm▫ Wide-awake▫ Wonder▫ Wonderful▫ Zestful

FEELINGS INVENTORY

the by-product of having had your needs met. Review theNeeds Inventory once more and identify five to ten of the needsthat resonate with you the most. Then review the Feelings In-ventory and identify the feelings associated with fulfilling the


Table 4-2. Needs inventory.

Source: Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas,CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2003), 212.

NEEDS INVENTORY

▫ Acceptance▫ Accomplishment▫ Affection▫ Appreciation▫ Authenticity▫ Awareness▫ Beauty▫ Belonging▫ Celebration▫ Challenge▫ Choice▫ Clarity▫ Closeness▫ Cooperation▫ Communication▫ Community▫ Companionship▫ Competence▫ Consciousness▫ Consideration▫ Consistency▫ Contribution▫ Creativity▫ Discover▫ Ease▫ Efficacy

▫ Effectiveness▫ Emotional safety▫ Empathy▫ Equality▫ Food▫ Freedom▫ Fun▫ Growth▫ Harmony▫ Honesty▫ Hope▫ Humor▫ Inclusion▫ Independence▫ Integrity ▫ Inspiration▫ Intimacy ▫ Joy▫ Laughter▫ Learning▫ Love▫ Meaning▫ Mourning▫ Movement/Exercise▫ Mutuality ▫ Nurturing

▫ Order▫ Participation▫ Peace▫ Purpose▫ Reassurance▫ Respect▫ Rest/Sleep▫ Safety▫ Security▫ Self-expression▫ Self-worth▫ Sexual expression▫ Shelter▫ Space▫ Spontaneity▫ Stability▫ Stimulation▫ Support▫ To be known▫ To be seen▫ To be understood▫ Touch▫ Trust▫ Understanding▫ Warmth

need. An example is given in table 4-3. Last, identify the activi-ties that most generate those feelings for you. The last columnin table 4-3 is where the ‘‘more’’ in more time for you resides.These activities give you the best bang for your buck, the great-est payoff for your investment in time. These are the activitiesthat really matter and are the most important for living ameaningful and rewarding life. You have just identified the in-gredients you need for a life well lived!

Doing What Is ImportantYou should begin to see, as you make the lists described in thisexercise, that what you do is almost always a function of what


Table 4-3. Associating needs and feelings with activities.

NEEDS THAT WHAT FEELING ASSOCIATED ACTIVITIES RESONATE THE NEED WITH FULFILLING THAT GENERATETHE MOST MEANS TO ME THE NEED THE FEELING

Contribution Being able tomake a difference

Happy, Satisfied,Fulfilled, Grateful

Spending leisurelyafternoons with myfamily

Giving “More Time forYou” presentations

Volunteering at thefood pantry

is important to you. Once you are clear about what is importantto you, then you will be able to determine what you want toaccomplish.Living a life that matters means living a life that matters to

you. You decide what is meaningful, significant, and paramountin your life. You draw the lines and color them in—and theclearer you are on what matters, the more effective you be-come at clearing the emotional, psychological, and physicalclutter from your life.Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, What is the mat-

ter (the core) of my life that truly matters? Next, ask yourself,loudly this time, What do I do about it? To help you answerthis question, read what authors Heike Bruch and SumantraGhoshal observed after a long study of the behaviors of manag-ers in large multinational corporations: ‘‘Effective action relieson a combination of two traits: focus—the ability to zero in ona goal and see the task through to completion—and energy—the vigor that comes from intense personal commitment.Focus without energy devolves into listless execution or leadsto burnout. Energy without focus dissipates into aimless busy-ness or wasteful failures.’’1

When you are in a state of knowing what is important andacting on it, you will be effective at executing purposeful actionand operating with focus, vitality, and peace of mind.


When you are in the creative act of engaging in work oractivities that are important to you, it produces the side effectof bringing out the best in you, of being the best of who you are.When you are engaged in what’s important to you, you arebeing yourself in the deepest possible way.Our motto is: Create your life and design your days. Creat-

ing your life begins with being clear about what you are up toand what you are out to fulfill in life. Establishing this, you canthen work on being effective at living the life you create. Youare clear about what’s important, you’ve looked at what youwant to accomplish, and you’ve created your life to carry it out.We’re not interested in productivity for productivity’s sake.Also, without being clear about what you are out to accomplish,you often have a sense of being forced, stressed, and over-whelmed by the tasks before you.

The following chapters will teach you techniques that allow youto get more done; however, the added benefit offers little relief un-less you are clear about what’s most important to you. So completethe exercise in this chapter first. If you want to be effective at livingthe life you create, you must first be clear about what you intend toaccomplish in life and where you’re headed. Then you can set your-self up to win. But if you don’t know what you are up to or what’simportant, you might be productive, but not necessarily effective.That is, you’ll get a great deal of work done, but the question re-mains: Will you have been effective at living a satisfying, rewarding,and meaningful life? Here are two examples that illustrate why ithelps to be clear about what’s important.

Rob Loves Pottery

A company that Rosemary co-founded hired young, talentedpeople right out of college to sell computer equipment over thetelephone directly to the purchasing and information technologydepartments of major corporations, and many of these new hires


had never held a full-time job before. The company was very suc-cessful, doubling the number of employees year after year for fiveyears.There was a standard profile of the person that could jump in

and do the job well: someone who loves to be on the phone, enjoysinfluencing others, or has any of the other characteristics that youwould think a person needs to be successful in the sales role. How-ever, there were some particularly successful people, such as Rob,who did not fit this profile.New recruits received sales training, and, as part of the pro-

gram, the trainer would say, ‘‘I want to know what’s most importantin your life. I want to know where you want to be ten years fromnow, twenty years from now. What do you want?’’Two-thirds of the group answered in dollars and cents, citing

the money they wanted to make, the house they wanted to buy, andso on. Rob, who was one of the top (and youngest) producers, in-stead said, ‘‘When I came here, the talk of money didn’t mean any-thing to me, but I liked the people. All I want to be is a potter. Iwant to live in my home and have no debt, no mortgage. I want todevote myself to pottery.’’He wanted to spend his life creating pottery, yet he was in a

sales position, selling computers over the telephone. Even so, hesaw that he could be the best in sales, buy a house, and then payoff his mortgage in a fraction of the time his friends did, so hecould live in that house mortgage free. He was sure his pottery saleswould take care of his living expenses. So, while he wasn’t able tointegrate his passion at his job, he did see his job as a way to attainhis goal of creating pottery, and that was a strong motivator.By the way, Rob continued to be a top producer. Now, more

than ten years later, he’s paid the mortgage on his house and iscreating pottery.

Liz Wants a Perennial Garden

Liz worked with Rob. A delightful young woman and a fantasticperformer in sales, Liz also was a telephone sales representative by


vocation and an artist by avocation. (In college, she had majored inmusic with a minor in art.)One day we asked her, ‘‘If you had any amount of money that

you needed, and if you had the time that you needed, what wouldyou be doing?’’She replied, ‘‘I know exactly what I would do. I would plant the

most beautiful perennial garden in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Iwould have a perfect location, one of those hidden gardens down-town, and I would design and grow the most beautiful garden.’’Liz expressed clearly what motivated her. After some creative

thinking, we came up with the idea to decorate her workspace withthe drawings she made of her future perennial garden. That way,whenever she became a little discouraged or lost a sale, she couldlook at her drawings and remember why she was a computer sales-person.Another year of Liz’s solid sales performance went by, and then

one day she said, ‘‘The one thing that’s missing in my life is time.I’m doing well, I can afford my perennial garden, but I don’t havethe time to plant and care for it.’’Because Liz was clear about what she wanted to achieve in life,

we used her need to come up with a solution. We started talkingwith other staff members, who were thrilled, and learned that manyof them felt the same way she did: ‘‘Now I have the money, but Idon’t have the time.’’ The company’s solution was to initiate a sab-batical program. After five years of producing for the company, anemployee received a three-month paid sabbatical. Liz used her sab-batical to start her garden.On the surface, Rob and Liz seemed like unlikely people to be

successful in a sales realm, but they were among the six top-tiersales producers at the company. Their stories show what can hap-pen when you know what is important in your life. If Rob and Lizhadn’t been clear about what was important to them in their lives,and if they hadn’t seen their jobs as paths for achieving what theywanted, we would have lost them as salespeople. Instead, they wereamong our best sales performers while successfully achieving theirpersonal goals. By knowing what is important to each individual, acompany can support a person’s goals in the workplace.


MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Two dear college friends, a husband and wife whom I, Alesia, don’tsee that often, traveled across the country to visit me. They broughtalong their three daughters, ages nine, twelve, and thirteen. Ilooked forward to spending time with them and enjoying their com-pany. I wanted them to have a wonderful memory of this trip. Un-fortunately, I hadn’t foreseen the logistics of having an additionalfive people in the house. I found myself running around to makesure they all had towels and sheets, food and snacks, and theirfavorite drinks and coffee.When we would all sit down to enjoy a meal together, I found

myself constantly bouncing up from the table to get something outof the oven, or the refrigerator, or to replace a napkin. My friendswould plead, ‘‘All that can wait, just come, sit down and join us.’’But I couldn’t sit still, because there was so much to do.I could feel my anxiety building up as I tried to be present with

them and at the same time be a good host. I wanted to make sure Ihad things for the children to do, that the house was always pickedup, that meals were served hot, and that the kids had snacks readywhen they needed them. In all of my frantic activity, I wasn’t enjoy-ing the visit.So I stopped and asked myself, ‘‘What is important here?’’ That

simple act of stopping allowed me to get in touch with why I wasdoing what I was doing and with what truly mattered to me. I ranaround like a crazy lady because I wanted everyone to have a goodtime and to make sure that the young ones were entertained andcared for.Yet what I was yearning for was to spend ‘‘quality’’ time being

with my friends and their children so that we could reconnect. Iwanted to have long, delicious conversations by the fireplace andplay board games with the children; to take long, leisurely walksand play hide-and-seek with the kids.I began to realize that my true intention was to create a glorious

memory of the visit for my guests and me and to spend as muchtime with them as possible. That’s the difference I wanted to make.All that running around I was doing wasn’t making a difference in


the quality of the visit. I began to chill out, relax, and savor myguests.Here’s another true story: I have a friend whose house was al-

ways immaculate. She had five kids and two dogs but you wouldn’tknow it. It didn’t matter the day or the time, if you went to herhouse you would find everything in perfect order. One day, I wentto visit and I was complimenting her on how dazzling the housewas. She turned to me and said, ‘‘If I had to do it over again, I wouldnot have spent so much of my time cleaning when the childrenwere younger, because I realize now that it did not make a differ-ence. What would have made a difference instead is if I had playedmore games with them or read more books with them or, betteryet, listened to them more. That would have made a difference.’’We all strive in some way to make a difference, and that drive

is imprinted in us at an early age. Even two-year-olds want to con-tribute. They want to help. They want to be useful. They want toput the dish in the dishwasher. They want to put the sock in thedrawer. They want to do something that has an impact. Since weare fundamentally wired to make a difference, we can use this pro-pensity as a compass for how we conduct ourselves, how we createour lives, and how we engage in our daily interactions. How can youmake a difference that makes a difference? What would make adifference, given what matters to you or what is important rightnow?Now that you’ve looked at what you say is most important to

you, let’s take the next step and begin to create your life.

5

CREATING YOUR LIFE

The future is not some place we are going, but one we arecreating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And theactivity of making them changes both the maker and theirdestination.

—JOHN SCHAAR

Creating your life and taking your effectiveness to the nextlevel is a lifelong pursuit. If it were only something to know orunderstand, then we would all be masters. However, much likeother pursuits, such as golf, tennis, chess, or bridge, while knowingand learning are important, practice, practice, practice is the key.One of the practices we advise, which has produced remarkable

results for us, family members, friends, and clients, is to look out ayear ahead and create your life as a series of accomplishments. First,choose the realms of your life that are important to you. Second,write what you want to accomplish in those realms. Last, picturewhat your life will be like a year from now, having accomplishedwhat you set out to do, and write that down.When we talk about accomplishments in this manner, we’re not

talking about the things that you have completed at the end of theday. We are looking at what you intend to accomplish in your lifeas a function of the things that you do every day. An example of anannual accomplishment is ‘‘I am fit, pleased with how I look, and


enjoy exercising, eating healthy foods, and being in the best shapeof my life.’’ That’s the overall accomplishment, but there are activi-ties you need to do every day to fulfill that accomplishment.

RESOLUTION VS. ACCOMPLISHMENT

There is a difference between making a New Year’s resolution andcreating an accomplishment for the next year of your life. Whenpeople make resolutions, they usually look at themselves in the mo-ment and try to find something they don’t like, something theywant to fix. They look at their careers, eating habits, lack of exer-cise, or smoking habit and think, ‘‘I’m going to fix it this time.’’They are forceful and resolute.A resolution presupposes that you are broken in some way and

need fixing or repairing; there would be no need for a resolution ifyou weren’t broken. It presupposes that you have failed, because ifyou had fixed the problem before, you wouldn’t need to bring outthe big guns to fix it this time. A resolution is in some sense a lastresort; if you don’t make it happen this time, there is no hope leftfor you. Resolutions are loaded with negative connotations. Theyare ways of making yourself wrong about something you shouldhave done. It is no wonder that we usually only keep them for threeweeks. Resolutions set us up for failure. Four out of five people whomake New Year’s resolutions eventually break them, citing toomuch to do or lack of commitment as the primary reasons.1

When you create an accomplishment for the next year of yourlife, you look at an area, such as your career, and envision it a yearfrom now. Begin by imagining that it is December 31st of next year.You are sitting across the table from a close friend, and you aretoasting the New Year. You are saying, ‘‘Yes, it has been such a greatyear; here are all the wonderful things that happened to my careerthis year.’’ You come at it from how it feels to have accomplishedcertain things over the year. The idea here is to write down whatyou accomplished and how you feel as a result of accomplishing it.

Creating Your Life 63

A resolution is concerned only with the outcome. The accomplish-ment contains the outcome, but is more interested in the processby which that outcome is achieved. When you create your life as aseries of accomplishments, you consciously envision the most posi-tive outcome of whatever endeavor you engage in. This is a creativeact that requires intention and commitment.There is no resoluteness with accomplishments created in this

manner; there is only the feeling of success. You may write accom-plishments such as, ‘‘I have been promoted to manager,’’ ‘‘I haveexperienced international travel,’’ and ‘‘I have been recognized formy work.’’ Whatever your accomplishments may be, you enjoy theexperience of having accomplished them. This creates forward mo-mentum and choices for purposeful action.

CREATING YOUR LIFE ONE YEAR OUT

Musician Carlos Santana has said, ‘‘Most people live and die andthey don’t even know what their calling was. Maybe they didn’t takethe time to push the pause button. What happens when you findyour calling—everything stops and you just see what you’re sup-posed to do and why you’re supposed to do it. When I heard thefirst guitar in Tijuana, it made me realize that I have possibilitiesand opportunities to discover and nothing was going to stop me.’’The act of creating your life as you envision it one year from

now is powerful because:

• You’ve incorporated what’s most important to you.• You’ve taken the long view, looking ahead to state what you willaccomplish during that year.

• You’ve experienced today what it will be like when you have accom-plished what you said you would one year from now.

Creating your accomplishments a year out is similar to the visu-alization techniques used in the sports world, especially by golf


greats. The best players in the world get to know a golf course be-fore they play it. They research it. They know every hole, the lengthof the hole, and the type of grass. They know the weather condi-tions for the day. They know which club is best for each circum-stance. And yet, even though they know all that, when they standat the tee before swinging their club, they stop. They will not teeoff until they visualize the swing, the hit, and the full journey ofthe ball going where they want it to go. They visualize what it isgoing to be like when the ball lands precisely where they want it to,whether it’s on the fairway, on the green, or into the hole.

FIVE STEPS TO CREATE YOUR ANNUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

When you create accomplishments a year out, you are tapping intothe power of visualization and crafting your future life. Envisioningwhat has been accomplished and then creating the experience ofwhat it is like being there is detailed in five steps:

1. Choose the important realms of your life.

2. List goals you want to achieve and outcomes you desire in eachrealm.

3. Create a summary accomplishment for each realm.

4. Share your accomplishments with others during the process, anduse this as an opportunity to further refine your accomplishments.

5. Keep your accomplishments in the forefront.

STEP 1: EXAMINE THE IMPORTANT REALMS OF YOUR LIFE

In chapter 4, you did some exercises designed to support you inlooking at what is most important to you. In this chapter, we ask


you to list what is important to you in categories we call the realmsof your life. Here are some realms you can use to jump-start thisprocess:

• Family/Friends/Significant Other/Romance• Health/Fitness• Education/Personal Growth• Finances/Wealth/Philanthropy• Fun/Recreation/Sports• Spirituality/Religion• Business/Career• The Arts/Music/Theater• Community/Politics• Home/Garden• Professional Development

Look again at the list you made in chapter 4 and correlate whatyou say is important to you within these realms. You might findthat you need to create your own realm if something that is impor-tant doesn’t fit in the categories listed here.To start, choose one of the realms and list what you want to

accomplish by the end of the year. You might start by stating thespecific goals you want to achieve by the end of the year, then visu-alizing what the results will look like or experiencing how you willfeel when they are accomplished. There are several visualization andreflection techniques to help you create what your life will be like ayear from now. Use the technique that works best for you.

Sample Chart of Accomplishments for Finances

In the example in table 5-1, the realm of importance is finances andwe have listed five accomplishments.Now, start your own list in a separate document. Fill in your

list of accomplishments in one realm of importance. You can startwith finance, as in the example, or you can start with any otherrealm you like. Create a list of accomplishments for each realm ofyour life.


Table 5-1. Chart of accomplishments for your realms of importance.

REALM OF IMPORTANCE: I ENJOY FINANCIAL SUCCESS

Accomplishment 1 My student loans are paid off.

Accomplishment 2 I have added $1,500 to my IRA/401(k) account.

Accomplishment 3 My credit card debt is now 0.

Accomplishment 4 I have $500 in my home improvement fund.

Accomplishment 5 We have $1,000 in our vacation account.

STEP 2: ENHANCE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Now, for each realm of your life, you should have a chart that listsyour initial accomplishments. You might have six, ten, or twelvecharts. In this step, you want to enhance your accomplishments.Review each realm of importance and start by answering a series ofquestions about each accomplishment you would like to achieve bythe end of the year, to better understand what’s in it for you andhow you feel about it. The idea is to enrich the experience and addcolor to it. Use the following questions as a guide to assist in mak-ing your accomplishment more vibrant and real for you:

• How will you feel about yourself after completing this accomplish-ment?

• What strengths or resources will you need to call on to accomplishthis achievement?

• What benefits will be made available to yourself and others byaccomplishing it?

• What obstacles will you overcome to accomplish it?

A sample chart of accomplishments for finance, with enhancementsadded (in italics), is shown in table 5-2.

STEP 3: CREATE A SUMMARY ACCOMPLISHMENT

Now, write a paragraph-length summary of the accomplishmentsfor each of your realms of importance. These summary paragraphs


Table 5-2. Realm of importance: finances.


Accomplishment 1 My student loans are paid off—the day finally arrived and I did it! Now I get to keep more of my own money.

Accomplishment 2 I have added $1,500 to my IRA/401(k) account and I’m excited to be saving for my future again.

Accomplishment 3 I am relieved that my credit card debt is now 0 and I am proud that we were able to stay focused over the year to make this happen.

Accomplishment 4 I have $500 in my home improvement fund and I am set up to succeed with my financial goals, because I have automated payments toward my account.

Accomplishment 5 We have $1,000 in our vacation account. A vacation to Ireland in 2012 is a reality.

are called your annual accomplishments, and they are what you aregoing to keep with you as your accomplishments for the year. Solet’s create a summary of your accomplishments for the realm offinances by writing a statement that expresses all aspects of theaccomplishments. For example:

I enjoy financial success. My student loans are paid off, and I’mproud that I paid them off in a timely matter. I’ve added $1,500to my IRA/401(k) account, and I’m excited to be saving for myfuture again. I’m relieved that my credit card debt is now zero,and proud that we were able to stay focused over the year to makethis happen. I have $500 in my home improvement fund, and I’mset up to succeed with my financial goals because I’ve automatedpayments into my account. We have $1,000 in our vacation ac-count, so a trip to Ireland is a reality in just two more years.

Now go through each of your realms and create a similar sum-mary paragraph. When you finish, you will have a list of your yearlyaccomplishments. By repeating this process for the other realms ofimportance in your life, you create your summary chart of accom-plishments, such as the one shown in table 5-3.


Table 5-3. Sample summary chart for finances.


Accomplishment 1 My student loans are paid off—the day finally arrived and I did it! Now I get to keep more of my own money.

Accomplishment 2 I have added $1,500 to my IRA/401(k) account and I’m excited to be saving for my future again.

Accomplishment 3 I am relieved that my credit card debt is now 0 and I am proud that we were able to stay focused over the year to make this happen.

Accomplishment 4 I have $500 in my home improvement fund and I am set up to succeed with my financial goals, because I have automated payments toward my account.

Accomplishment 5 We have $1,000 in our vacation account. A vacation to Ireland in 2012 is a reality.

Summary I enjoy financial successAccomplishment

Now that my monthly bills are paid automatically, I can give my attention to creating new business rather than paying bills. By maxing out my IRA/401(k) contributions, I am ensuring funds will be available for our retirement. We are enjoying choosing and contributing to organizations and charities that support our stand for a just and sustainable world. And we’re enjoying trips to parts of the world that were mere dreams before.

STEP 4: SHARE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

When sharing your accomplishments, we recommend you choosetwo or three people; for example, your spouse and one or two peo-ple with whom you work closely or have known for a long time. Youare looking for people who know you well (at least in one realm oflife) and who will freely comment on what you share with them.Speaking the accomplishments out loud is a powerful exercise be-cause it makes them more real for you and facilitates feedback frompeople who are important to you. You might want to first rewriteyour summary accomplishment several times until you are satisfiedwith it before reading your accomplishments aloud or sitting downand going through them with someone you trust.


Your list doesn’t have to be complete or perfect. In fact, it maynot be complete until you’ve shared it with several people. Theseaccomplishments take on an additional richness when you edit andread them to someone else. Continue this process until you aresatisfied with your accomplishments.By creating your accomplishments, you are creating your inten-

tions; you are creating your life in front of you. So, although wehighly recommend that you share your accomplishments with se-lected others, we also recognize that these are your accomplish-ments and it is completely up to you if you want to make themknown to other people.

STEP 5: KEEP YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTSIN THE FOREFRONT

Now that you are clear about your accomplishments for the year,print them out and keep them in front of you. In chapter 8, we’llsuggest ways to check in on your progress. For example, you canmake an appointment with yourself each month to review and re-create your accomplishments. This simple action will keep the end-game in sight and also keep you open to resources andopportunities for fulfilling your accomplishments.

WALK YOUR TALK

The value of identifying what you want to accomplish in life is thatit brings clarity and focus to what you choose to do or not do.Creating accomplishments for the next year of your life gives youthe opportunity to fulfill what’s most important. It allows yourfamily, friends, and coworkers to partner with you in realizing theseaccomplishments. You’ve placed a marker for how your life will bein the future.


Now it’s about designing your days to make this future happen.We’ve all heard the phrase ‘‘Walk your talk.’’ That is the true test.You can say whatever you want to say in these exercises, but it’swhat you schedule in your calendar and what you do with your timethat is the measure of living the satisfying and rewarding life youcreated.

EXAMPLES OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Health

• I am well nourished and fit. I feel good in my body. My movementis fluid and free, and I feel strong.

• I have reached the intermediate level in Pilates and jog three to fourmiles several times per week.

• My personal trainer and I meet routinely to discuss and modify myhealth and exercise plan.

Family and Friends

• My siblings and I worked together to assist our parents in movingto a retirement community in New England that’s close to most ofthe family. We continue to realize what a gift it is for us to be withthem.

• I thoroughly enjoy ‘‘Mondays with Sam.’’ Being part of mygrandson’s life is such a privilege.

Community

• I became a committed recycler this year. This is my contribution tothe planet. I have also educated myself to lead a greener life.

• I had a block party this summer. We closed down the street and hada great time. I am so happy to be connected to my neighbors.

• I have become a gardener this year. Trading seeds, plants, andgrowing advice with my family and neighbors has been an enrichingexperience. My garden produced enough over the summer that we


were able to can and freeze our favorites for ourselves as well as forholiday gifts.

Philanthropy

• I continued to support my friends and family in their charitablework as they did rides, runs, and other fund-raising activities.

• I have continued on as a board member of New Generation, a shelterfor homeless pregnant women, making a difference in the lives ofwomen and children at this most vulnerable time in their lives.

Fun

• I started getting books on CD from my local library. I order themonline, pick them up, and have listened to many authors this year.

• As I continued to reach out to my community and friends, I enter-tained more this year by having a variety of folks to our home forfun, laughter, healthy food, and great conversations.

Business/Work Contribution

• I am energized by the work I do, and feel rewarded by it spirituallyand financially.

• My organizational system works for me; things flow in and outeffortlessly and I always have at my fingertips all the resources andinformation I need; my electronic devices support all my endeavorsin a fun and creative way.

• I have established a strategic work plan for the year and reviewed iton a weekly basis, making changes as necessary on a quarterly basis.

Home

• My home is my sanctuary. I have renovated my office, kitchen, andboth bathrooms.

Remember our motto: Create your life and design your days.Now that you have identified what is important and written outyour annual accomplishments, you are ready to begin designingyour days to live the life you create.

THE MORE-TIME- FOR-YOU SYSTEM TO ORGANIZE YOUR WORK AND GET THINGS DONE

One can make a day of any size and regulate the rising and setting of his own sun and the brightness of its shining.

JOHN MUIR

EERHTTRP A

6

CAPTURING YOURTHOUGHTS

The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.—OLD PROVERB

‘‘Apenny for your thoughts,’’ a friend said the other day.Imagine if you were paid a penny for every thought you hadin a day. That would add up to a handsome sum of money by theend of the year. Our thoughts are elusive. Their visits to our con-sciousness can be very brief. They come from out of nowhere andthen retreat quickly. Most of our thoughts are fleeting and inconse-quential, but some can have great consequence and are worth not-ing. The trick is to capture the thoughts that are noteworthy. Thischapter introduces a practice that is central to your ability to havemore time for you. It will allow you to ‘‘download’’ the thoughtsthat you want to remember and relieve you of having to expendenergy trying to recall or locate where you’ve written somethingdown. This practice brings a sense of well-being and peace of mind,allowing you to:

• Have a consistent place to keep track of what you need to do orwant to do. No more hunting around your desk, office, car, or garagefor reminders.


• See your calendar scheduled with tasks and activities that you wantto do and that you say you will do.

• Have your arms around everything you say you will do—all of it.You’ll experience the kind of peace of mind that comes fromknowing you are not dropping the ball on anything, and from havingcontrol over everything that you say is important to you.

• Experience a newfound sense of freedom and powerfulness—thefreedom that comes from you making the choices about what youdo every day.

• Find ease in living the life that you want and experiencing the lifeof your dreams.

If you have ever taken on new daily practices, such as an exer-cise regimen or a diet program, you may remember that the firstseveral days your old habits are screaming, ‘‘Go ahead and buy thatbag of chips! Eat that cookie!’’ or ‘‘Stay in bed. You deserve the rest.You don’t need to go to the gym today.’’As with diet and exercise, after using the program for a week or

so, you begin to feel the benefits. You become clearer about howmuch time you have to accomplish what you want. You begin tomake choices based on what’s most important to you as you seewhich habits and activities are displacing the time you need to dowhat is most important to you.When we lead people through this process in a workshop or a

coaching session, they share their experiences and discuss the pro-cess with others who are trying these new practices at the sametime. You might find someone or a group that would like to under-take these new practices with you. Then you can share experiencesamong yourselves, discussing your difficulties as well as your suc-cesses.

CAPTURING EVERYTHING

Let’s begin by getting a handle on everything in your life that takestime. Everything in your life includes all that you:

Capturing Your Thoughts 77

• Have on your mind• Have to do• Want to do• Should be doing• Don’t want to do• Forgot to do• Want someone else to do• Think would be a good idea to do• Need to do• Dream about doing• Hate to do• Love to do

You are working with new practices here that will allow you toinclude all of the things on your mind. While it may seem daunting,this crucial step brings a sense of control, peace of mind, and reliefthat you didn’t think was possible. Don’t fret; we’ll take youthrough the process so that you can accomplish this task one stepat a time.One of the major impediments to our effectiveness and produc-

tivity is that our minds are too full of things that we know weshould be doing or want to be doing, or things that we forgot to do.Dr. Edward Hallowell, MD, specializes in diagnosing and treatingattention deficit disorder (ADD). In his book, CrazyBusy, he states:

Brain overload has reached the point where our entire society issuffering from culturally induced ADD. . . . Once applicable onlyto a relatively few, the symptoms of ADD now seem to describejust about everybody. People with untreated ADD rush around alot, feel impatient wherever they are, love speed, get frustratedeasily, lose focus in the middle of a task or a conversation becausesome other thought catches their attention, bubble with energybut struggle to pay attention to one issue for more than a fewseconds, talk fast or feel at a loss for words, often forget wherethey’re going or what they are going to get, have bright ideas butcan’t implement them, fail to complete what they’re doing, havemany projects going simultaneously but chronically postpone


completing them . . . feel they could do a lot more if they couldjust get it together, get angry easily when interrupted, feel power-less over the piles of stuff that surround them, resolve each dayto do better tomorrow, and in general feel busy beyond belief butnot at all productive.1

Hallowell accurately describes the experience of life for many ofus: ‘‘Your goal,’’ he writes, ‘‘is to rein in your attention on what youwant to accomplish and then identify the time to complete it.’’Everyone suffers from undiagnosed, culturally induced ADD to

one degree or another. There’s more to it than just the psychology.So let’s take a quick look at the physiology of what’s happening inyour brain, the one and only processor humans have, and look atthe impact on you.Let’s begin with the right side of the brain. Its job is to intercept

everything that’s going on and absorb it like a sponge. The rightside of the brain is in charge of incoming stimuli. It takes all thisincoming data and sends it to the left side of the brain to sort andstore for later retrieval so you can respond.Social scientists have long assumed that it is impossible to pro-

cess more than one string of information at a time. The brain justcan’t do it. And, much of the time, the left side of our brain cannotkeep up with all the incoming information to respond fast enough.How many times have you suddenly remembered something thathas nothing to do with what you’re doing at the moment? We evenhave a phrase for it: ‘‘That came to me from out of the blue,’’ or‘‘out of nowhere.’’ Well, it didn’t. It came to you when your brainwas finally able to catch up and produce a response.There are limits to how much complexity humans can handle.

At today’s instantaneous pace, many of us have exceeded thosemoment-by-moment limits. Relief only comes by capturing every-thing on one list.Culturally induced ADD causes fragmentation in our thinking,

leaving us stressed or anxious as we go through our days. The easi-est way to handle the distractions that cause anxiety is to startclearing your mind. The easiest way we’ve found to clear your mind


is to empty it by writing everything down in one specific place thatis always easily accessible and convenient to use.Sales trainer Charlie Greer cites very interesting statistics pro-

duced by the National Science Foundation (NSF): ‘‘We think a thou-sand thoughts per hour. The average person thinks about 12,000thoughts per day. A deeper thinker, according to this [NSF] report,puts forth 50,000 thoughts daily.’’2 No matter how you look at it orcount it, a great deal of thinking happens every day with manythoughts running across your mind. How do you keep up? How doyou keep it all straight?Well, rather than counting on your memory to store and re-

trieve items for you, we suggest you consistently capture as manyof those thoughts and ideas as you can in one place. We looked atprofessionals and organizations in other fields—medicine, sports,education, and industry—that have developed best practices andadapted them into a model for our own effectiveness practices.

BEST PRACTICE: CAPTURE

Our first best practice comes from a well-known delivery service:FedEx. Packages from businesses and individuals from all over thecountry are dropped off or picked up by FedEx drivers, driven tothe local airport, and flown that evening to one central location inMemphis, Tennessee. Within a matter of hours, all the packages aresorted and placed back on flights to their final destinations. WhenFred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, developed this businessmodel, people thought he was crazy. How could it be efficient tosend packages from Boston destined for New York through Mem-phis, Tennessee?We’ve seen the results. This approach revolutionized overnight

delivery service and how packages are shipped daily. Today, most ofthe 3 million packages that FedEx delivers each day still go throughMemphis.We are going to use the FedEx model as an effectiveness prac-

tice for handling everything that comes at us each and every day.


Let’s start by looking at how we keep track of all of ourthoughts, ideas, and commitments right now. Use the checklist intable 6-1 to stimulate your thinking and list all the places you cur-rently keep reminders of things to do. Write down every place andevery technique, including the Post-it notes on your computer mon-itor, as well as the stacks of papers on your desk or the magazinespiled in the corner.Currently, you are probably not capturing all of your thoughts,

and when you do, you most likely put them in any number of places.Sometimes you may put reminders in a couple of places at once soyou can be sure you’ll be able to locate them when you need them.

Table 6-1. Where do you keep everything now?

▫ Post-it notes on my car wind -shield, refrigerator, computermonitor, or folders, etc.

▫ My to-do list(s) in a notebook, on a whiteboard, or on mycomputer, etc.

▫ Ask a friend, colleague, orcoworker to remind me

▫ Notes on scraps of paper orbusiness cards in the side pocket of my computer bag, briefcase,purse, or wallet

▫ Stacks of papers, envelopes,notebooks, folders, or newsletterson my desk

▫ Pop-up reminders on my homecomputer

▫ My “old” to-do list

▫ E-mails in my Inbox, Sent, or Draft folder

▫ Voice messages sent to myself

▫ Notes on folders, my hand, articlemargins, scraps of paper, backs ofenvelopes, backs of businesscards, and napkins

▫ Appointment cards and businesscards with notes on the back, onmy desk, or in my purse/wallet

▫ Writing on my kitchen calendar

▫ My household projects list when Ican find it

▫ Notices in my calendar formeetings long past

▫ My folder for bills to pay, thank-you notes to write, or expensestatement to prepare, etc.

▫ Messages left on my cell phonevoice mail, in my work and homevoice mail

▫ E-mails to myself and e-mails thatI think I’ll get to someday

▫ The stack of magazines on the endof my desk

▫ Documents in my computersomewhere

▫ Other:____________________________

▫ Other:____________________________

� Check off all the things you do to remind yourself of what you need to do:


Is this a system for success? Just think about the extra brain cyclesit takes to remember where you put the thing you want to re-member.What if you could eliminate the need to have redundant sys-

tems to remember things? What if you could have one primaryplace to capture everything coming at you?Rather than counting on your memory, you can use one of sev-

eral different resources to capture your thoughts and ideas, in-cluding:

• Notebook (small, medium, or large) or steno pad or compositionbook

• Letter-size pad of lined paper (with or without clipboard)• iPhone, BlackBerry, or other similar electronic device• Digital voice recorder

We are going to use the term capture tool when referring to anotepad, tape recorder, a BlackBerry, and so on. It’s not because wewant to rename the thing you already know and use; it’s becausewe want you to realize that this everyday item you may be carryingwith you for many different reasons is now being used for a veryspecific purpose with a specific set of practices.When things come to mind during the day that you may want

to do later, write, type, or record them immediately. Write downthoughts, requests, ideas, errands, dreams, promises, goals, in-sights, gift ideas, and observations—anything that comes to mind.Keep your capture tool with you all day. During the day, you

may find that you get some of these items done. Great. In that case,cross them off or delete them. Our goal is to keep our mind workingon what we say we want to accomplish. So every time somethingcomes to you, write it down, even if you think you will get it donethat day.Using a capture tool is the first step in:

• Getting your arms around everything that there is for you to do andhandle

• Eliminating that sneaking feeling that you forgot something impor-tant


• Reducing the stress that comes from hunting for that phone numberat the last minute

• Having more personal and family time

We realize that we are asking you to put aside your thoughtsabout your current way of doing things and take on something new.We know how tough this can be, especially for people who alreadyhave a good system in place. This brings to mind a woman in oneof our workshops who stood up with her large (9� � 12�) Day-Timer Planner clutched to her chest, saying, ‘‘You can’t take myDay-Timer away from me. Everything is in it. I wouldn’t know whatto do without it.’’She’s right. We weren’t asking her to get rid of her Day-Timer

or to stop carrying it around. What we were asking her to do wasto choose and implement a separate capture tool for that week.We’re asking you to do the same thing: Use your capture tool

to capture the ideas, thoughts, and requests that you need to re-member as they come at you throughout the day.The reason we strongly encourage you to keep a capture tool

separate from your portable planning system is to give you a fight-ing chance to develop a habit of capturing and releasing each day.Our experience is that when a capture tool is embedded in a porta-ble planning system, it’s more difficult to take on these new prac-tices. We understand it may be difficult for some people. Trust uson this one. It is best to use a small separate device to write downeverything that comes to mind that you want to remember duringthe day.

Keeping Your Device Available

It is important that your chosen device becomes a constant com-panion. In the beginning, it can be a little difficult to remember tocarry it with you all the time. But think of the things that you havebecome used to bringing with you always. For some of you, it maybe your cell phone. Do you ever go anywhere without it? For others,it may be your keys or wallet. For others, it may be your purse,briefcase, or backpack.


Do not leave your home without your capture tool. Why? Be-cause all day long you are thinking of things that you want to do,or need to do, or forgot to do. These thoughts keep coming, every-where you go. What do you do with these thoughts now? If you arelike most people, you barely notice them. And then, when a thoughtstirs you to action, you may react by:

• Saying to yourself, ‘‘Oh, I’ll remember that later.’’• Grabbing a handy scrap of paper and (if you have a pen or pencil)writing a note so you won’t forget it.

• Asking someone who is with you to remind you.• Writing it on your hand.• Leaving yourself a message on your voice mail.• Asking a friend to send you an e-mail to remind you.

If you don’t write down your thoughts right away, you will tendto forget them. But if you do write them down, you have a betterchance of retrieving them when you want, especially if you writethem down in a reliable place where you know you can find theinformation, a place you’ve consciously chosen.Now we all know this works because we already do it—for ex-

ample, when there is something that we don’t want to forget beforewe leave the house. How many of you place items in the car thenight before, or next to the front door, or at the top of the stairs,so you’d have to trip over them before you forgot them? I, Rose-mary, can remember the night before I was leaving on a two-weektrip and needed to leave the house at 5:00 a.m. to catch an 8:00a.m. flight. I was lining items at the top of the stairs that I didn’twant to forget:

• A gift for the person I was staying with• Workout instructions• Bag of energy bars• Vitamin container• Bills to mail on my way out the door• My itinerary• Airline tickets

My husband stopped and asked me, ‘‘What is this cast of characterson the top of the stairs?’’ I looked at it all. I hadn’t been aware of


how much I relied on putting something where I could not miss iton the way out the door. But we do it, and it works. Why? Becausewe choose a reliable place to put everything. For the same reason,your new capture tool is also a reliable place to put things.

BEST PRACTICE: RELEASE

Throughout the day you’ve been capturing to-do items, ideas,things you promised to do for others, things other people promisedto you, and so on.As you look at your list at the end of the day, you’ll see some of

the items were already completed and you can cross them off. Sofar so good. Next, let’s deal with all the unfinished business—theitems that you were unable to complete during the day.For this task we use the model of the hospital emergency room

and its triage process. Triage was initiated in World War I, on thebattlefields in France. Today, it’s used in hospitals and trauma cen-ters throughout the world to categorize or prioritize patients as:

• The deceased• The injured who can be helped by immediate transportation• The injured whose transport can be delayed• Those with minor injuries who need help less urgently

After choosing how each patient is to be handled, doctors or nursesplace them in holding areas or mark their ID bracelets with color-coded labels, indicating their triage categories.We are going to use a similar approach as we take you through

a step-by-step process that will leave you with an empty capturetool—one that is cleared of all items and ready to be used againtomorrow. At the end of the day, you have to review what you wrotedown or recorded in your capture tool, and then identify the itemsthat you were not able to complete during the day. You then openyour calendar and schedule a time to do them.You may notice some items you captured but didn’t schedule.


These leftover items are the ones that you have not yet scheduledand not yet completed.What are you going to do with this unfinished business? If you

want to clear your mind and use it for something other than amemory pad, you are going to need to have a place for these items.The point of triage is to make quick but purposeful decisions. Forthe items in your capture tool, you must take one of three actions:

• Delete it.• Do it.• File it.

Before you can begin to triage, you need to set up a system thatmakes it quick and easy to do, one that gives you the assurancethat you won’t forget (or have to remember), so you can keep yourthoughts on what you are doing rather than worrying about whatyou are forgetting to do.

CREATING TRIAGE FOLDERS

Using an e-mail and calendar system such as Microsoft Outlook isa convenient way to implement this triage system. First, create twonew folders named:

• Waiting for Response• Someday

If you’ve never created new folders, you can get help in Outlookor follow these instructions: In any view (such as Mail or Calendar),open the File List navigation pane on the left.

1. Highlight ‘‘Personal Folders.’’

2. In the Outlook toolbar, select ‘‘File.’’

3. Highlight ‘‘New.’’

4. Click on ‘‘Folder.’’


5. The Create Folder dialog box opens. Enter your new folder name,‘‘Waiting for Response,’’ and click OK.

Figure 6-1 shows a screenshot of this process. Repeat the samesteps to create a folder for ‘‘Someday.’’

Figure 6-1. Setting up a “Waiting for Response” folder.

Triage Step 1: Delete It

This step actually has two parts:

• Cross off or delete any items you already completed.• Cross off or delete those items you wrote down but that you are notcommitted to doing.

One of life’s most satisfying acts can be taking out that list andcrossing off the items that you completed during the day. It leavesyou with at least a temporary sense of accomplishment. However,you also have to look at the items on your list and spot the onesthat you will not even attempt to do—the ones that leave you won-dering, ‘‘What was I even thinking when I wrote that down?’’ Youcross them off your list, too.Now let’s deal with everything else on your list.


Triage Step 2: Do It

When you capture information you’re not always thinking aboutwhy you are capturing it. Some of the things you write down willbe notes and information you want to save. Some will be actionsyou can and want to take. For everything on your list that is anaction item, there’s a decision point. Here is an overview of thesteps.

• Anything you can complete in less than two minutes: Do it now.• If you are committed to doing it and it will take more than twominutes, pull out your calendar and schedule a time to do it.

• If you are committed to doing it, but can’t schedule a time just yetbecause you need further information from someone before you cando it, post it to the Waiting for Response folder.

Doing It Now

If it will take less than two minutes to complete the item, just doit. Yes, right now. Get it off your list and off your mind. First, it’sdone, and second, you don’t have to remember to do it, deal withit, or do it later. It’s simply done.

Scheduling It Now

For every item on your list that is going to take more than twominutes to accomplish but that you are committed to completing,take out your calendar and schedule a time for it. Repeat this pro-cess until everything you are committed to doing is scheduled. Byscheduling into your calendar everything you say you want to getdone, you are automatically set up to remember to do it. Figure 6-2 is an example of placing some items from your capture tool intoyour calendar.

Waiting for Response

You are probably going to find that there are some items you wantto do and are committed to do, but can’t schedule yet because you


Figure 6-2. Scheduling items into your day and week.

need some information from someone else before you can scheduleit. Take each of these items and post a note in your Waiting forResponse folder. Here is how to make the post:

1. Click on the Waiting for Response folder.

2. Go to ‘‘New.’’

3. Open the menu by clicking on the down arrow to the right of‘‘New.’’

4. Choose ‘‘Post in This Folder.’’

5. Enter your note on the subject line and click ‘‘Post,’’ which bringsup a form.

6. Enter your subject, write your note, and click post.

Figure 6-3 shows where to find ‘‘Post in This Folder’’ in MicrosoftOutlook. Clicking on ‘‘Post in This Folder’’ opens a new window(shown in Figure 6-4) where you can type in details about the itemyou are waiting for and from whom.Think of this folder as a temporary holding folder. The only

items that go in here are the ones you need or want to do but can’tbecause you are waiting for someone else’s input before you can


Figure 6-3. Posting a note in your Waiting for Response folder.

Figure 6-4. Post in this folder.

schedule. You want to view items in this folder at least once a day.Reviewing them at the end of the day allows you to:

1. Delete the items that have been handled during the day.

2. Choose to remind someone who hasn’t responded with a call ormessage.

3. Let it wait another day.


Triage Step 3: File It

You need to find a place to put everything else that you haven’tdeleted or committed to do. If it is something you want to save,place it in an existing file or create one. If it’s something you maywant to save just because you never know if you’ll need it, but youdon’t want to take the time to create a file for it, post a note inyour ‘‘Someday’’ folder in Outlook.During the day, some of the items you collect may be hardcopy

items, such as brochures, programs, invitations, and so on, that youwant to keep. File them. If you have an existing file folder that isappropriate, place them in there, or if you choose, use a new folder.You may want to store some of the items in your capture tool

in an electronic file format. If you have an existing folder, post anote to that folder, or if you choose, create a new electronic folderand post to that one.

Your Someday Folder

As you continue to triage items from your capture tool, you mayfind there are some items left over. These are items that you havechosen not to do anything about now and for which you don’t findit worthwhile to create a separate file folder. However, you aren’tready to let them go, either. Place them into your hardcopy or elec-tronic Someday folder.Your Someday folder is a place to store all of the thoughts and

tasks that you want to keep on your radar but aren’t ready to sched-ule in your calendar. The purpose of the Someday folder is to freeyour mind from being worried that you will forget something orthat it will fall through the cracks. By capturing these items andputting them in this one folder, you know right away where to findthem. No more rummaging through multiple folders or searchingthrough files. Anything you want to do, need to do, would like todo, and so forth, is either scheduled in your calendar or filed inyour Someday folder. Anytime you want to resurrect an item orlook at it, you can. The key is to continually empty your mind. Keepit clutter free by recording the things that come to mind. Then


choose what you will do by scheduling in your calendar the itemsthat you say are most important and putting the others in yourSomeday file.We want you to place items in this folder, knowing that they

are easy to find, review, and retrieve. We don’t want this list tobecome your taskmaster—something that presses on you, urgesyou to do more, or makes you feel overwhelmed.As with your Waiting for Response electronic folder, you may

find that it is useful to color-code and categorize items in yourSomeday folder. The difference is that you don’t need to reviewyour Someday folder every day. This is a folder you may choosenever to review again. Items in this folder are ones you have chosennot to do anything about, except keep them around for a while.That’s it. You have now learned how to handle every item that

you captured today. Is every item crossed off? If yes, tear it out andthrow the list away. Why not? You really are done with it. Youshould look forward to throwing the list away each day. Of course,some people cross everything off but still want to keep the listaround ‘‘just in case.’’ Instead of turning over another page andkeeping the list in your capture tool, we recommend you still tear itout, but instead of throwing it away, place it in a hardcopy ‘‘monthlycapture’’ file folder if it’s too difficult for you to throw it out. Thereis nothing remaining in your capture tool. It’s empty and ready fortomorrow.

GETTING STARTED

In this chapter you learned the value of freeing your mind to thinkabout more important matters than remembering to drop off thedry cleaning. You learned to record everything on your mind in oneeasily accessible and convenient-to-use capture tool, rather thanusing multiple reminders in multiple places to try to remembersomething. By keeping your capture tool with you throughout theday, you can continually write down and add all thoughts and ideas


as they come to mind. Then, before the end of the day, empty yourcapture tool using the triage method.The capture and release practices are the heart of our system to

organize your work and get things done. These practices allow youto download what’s on your mind and keep track of everythingimportant that you need to do or want to do. To begin your practiceof capture and release, select a capture tool that is convenient foryou. The most popular ones we see in use are notebooks (small,medium, or large), steno pads, or composition books; letter-sizepads of lined paper (with or without clipboard); iPhone, BlackBerry,or similar electronic devices; or digital voice recorders. We recom-mend using your smartphone as your capture tool only when youcan enter information into them very quickly. That way your fingerscan keep up with your thoughts.Next, keep your capture tool handy so that you can write down

or record thoughts that you want to remember as they come upthroughout the day. No more writing on the back of napkins, Post-it notes, or random slips of paper. Everything is collected in yourcapture tool. If you forget your capture tool, go back and get it. Itis essential to discipline yourself to capture in one place thethoughts that come to mind. At the end of the day, release whatyou’ve collected by using the triage system. Either:

• Do it.• Delete it.• File it.

Have fun with this new practice and experience the peace ofmind that comes from knowing that nothing is falling through thecracks.

7

DESIGNING YOUR DAYS

How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.—ANNIE DILLARD

In the television series Dirty Sexy Money, actor Donald Suther-land plays a multibillionaire named Tripp. One of the episodesshowed a morning in his life. The scene opened with someone pull-ing back the curtains with great gusto, welcoming in the daylight.Then the camera panned to Tripp lying in his bed (it was the butlerwho had opened the curtains). In the next scene, the butler gaveTripp a shave, handed him a tie, and then handed him the newspa-per as he walked out the door. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had abutler?

USING YOUR CALENDAR TO ASSIST YOU

Your calendar can be your butler, or if you prefer, your office assis-tant. Of course, your calendar can’t open the curtains for you orhand you the newspaper, but it can remind you of an appointment.


Similar to what a butler may do, many calendar applications have areminder function that serves as an alarm to inform you of what’snext on your schedule or approaching soon. Until you have the ser-vices of an actual butler, your alarm can serve as your virtual butler.Here are a few examples of what using the reminder feature on thecalendar can do for you.When you write a description of what you want to accomplish

during a period of time in your calendar, you can set an alarm to gooff before the event to remind you that it’s coming up. It’s likehaving your butler announcing that your next appointment is dueto begin in fifteen minutes. This gives you time to wrap up whatyou’re doing and prepare for your next appointmentWhen you write the description of your appointment in a way

that includes why it is important to you (perhaps relating it back toyour annual accomplishments), you can create a sense of interestand perhaps even excitement for what you are about to do.The reminder, when announced, tunes you into how this is yet

one more event in your life that allows you to fulfill something thatyou say is important to you, and in ways that are consistent withthe design of your life.So the reminder and how you write it can be like a butler’s

service. Taking it further, imagine the butler announcing, ‘‘Madam,in fifteen minutes, your staff meeting is about to begin in room205.’’ So madam says, ‘‘Thank you, James. I can see it’s time tofinish wrapping up my interview with the possible new employee.I’ll be there.’’ Now picture James holding out a briefcase that hasall the papers that madam needs to take to the meeting with her.‘‘Thank you, James.’’While there are many different software programs that provide

calendars with an alarm function, figure 7-1 uses Microsoft Out-look, which is one of the most prevalent programs, to demonstratehow to use the reminder feature.Open your calendar and double click on the date and time you

would like your appointment to start. In the ‘‘Subject’’ line, nameyour appointment. Set the appointment end time and then checkthe box next to ‘‘Reminder.’’ Use the pull-down menu to choose how

Designing Your Days 95

Figure 7-1. Setting a reminder alarm in your calendar.

many minutes before your appointment you would like the alarmto go off, then click ‘‘Save and Close.’’You can choose when you want to be reminded (such as in five

minutes, eighteen hours, or two weeks before). For example, tryusing this feature to remind yourself about family birthdays twoweeks before their date. Leave the birthday entry on the actualdate, but set the alarm to be reminded in time to buy the card andgift and mail them.It’s nice to relate to your calendar as though it were your very

own ‘‘James.’’ You can set up your calendar so that it anticipateswhat’s next for you, just like a butler would, and what you want toaccomplish.

‘‘Madam, here is your reminder. Your meeting is approaching.’’‘‘Oh, yes, thank you, James. I am off to my meeting now.’’‘‘Sir, your anniversary is approaching.’’‘‘Yes, thank you. I’ll order roses so they are ready for me to pick upon my way home.’’


Everything that you need to know about the occasion (date,time, location, directions, who’s attending) or need to have (report,notes, spreadsheet) for the meeting is already embedded in yourcalendar.Figure 7-2 is an example of an appointment for a staff meeting.

Notice the icons in the white area for notes. These are documentsthat are needed for this meeting—a Word document, an Excelspreadsheet, and a PowerPoint presentation. If you need hard cop-ies of these documents to distribute during the meeting, you wouldschedule the time to make the copies beforehand.To insert a file into your appointment (see figure 7-3) click on

‘‘Insert,’’ then ‘‘File.’’ You can then browse through your documentfolders to select the file you want to include. When you click on‘‘File,’’ the ‘‘Insert File’’ dialog box opens, bringing you to ‘‘My Docu-ments’’ (see figure 7-4). Click on the folder you need to access thedocument you want.You have choices about how you want the inserted file to appear

as well (see figure 7-5). After you highlight your document, clickon the Insert drop-down menu and choose text, attachment, orhyperlink.You can also insert e-mail messages. They are referred to as

Figure 7-2. Inserting essentials into your calendar.


Figure 7-3. Inserting a file into your appointment.

‘‘items.’’ Return to the Insert menu (figure 7-3) and choose ‘‘Item’’this time, rather than ‘‘File.’’ This action brings you to your inbox,where you choose the message you want to insert. You have thesame choices available as to how you would like to insert (text,attachment, or hyperlink).

YOUR CALENDAR—A VIEW INTO YOUR LIFE

We each have twenty-four hours a day—168 hours a week—nomore, no less. To be most effective with those hours, we need toknow how we are actually spending our time, as opposed to how wethink, hope, or want to spend our time. This is why we say that thefirst step in using your time most effectively is living out of yourcalendar and having it reflect your actual day.


Figure 7-4. Browsing your document folders to select a file.

Here is another way to look at it. What if you are at the furni-ture store and you see this great hutch for $500. You want it, soyou take out your checkbook (which hasn’t been balanced) and sayto yourself, ‘‘I think I have about $500 in there.’’ You write the checkfor $500, only to find out the next day when you checked yourbalance there was only $300 in your account. Now you are over-drawn and living with the penalties and consequences. This analogyholds for how we manage our time. We often overdraw our ‘‘timeaccount’’ by thinking we have more time than we do. Is it any won-der we run out of time to get things done? Or that we can’t find thetime to do what we really want?Trying to chart your course without a map, without radar, and

without weather reports leaves you in a state of urgency and emer-gency, with too much to do and not enough time to do it.The more you are aware of what you do in a day, the more

realistic you can be about what you want to accomplish. And the


Figure 7-5. Choosing a file format to insert into your appointment.

more you are aware of what you want to accomplish with the timeyou have, the more effective you will be with your time. We’vefound that planning for every hour in your day, even if the plan isto sit and do nothing, makes you more accountable for where theday went.We are now going to include time on your calendar for the rou-

tines of your life—from the mundane to the inspiring. These are allthe things you do each week. They are the patterns that take up agood part of your day. They are things you probably never schedule.Why? Because you don’t need to be reminded to do them, andyou’ve been treating your calendar as a reminder machine. We’renow asking you to use your calendar for a whole lot more. We areasking you to live your life out of your calendar, so you’ll be set upto do what you say is most important.Some activities are so automatic that we discount their impor-

tance and tend to discount the fact that they take time. This is part


of the mischief we create for ourselves when managing our time.We spend a considerable amount of time doing routine tasks thatwe never account for and then we wonder, ‘‘Where did the day go?’’

Blocking Your Time

Start by blocking your time for the routines and rituals you do dailyand weekly. Let’s take a look at one part of your day, your weekdaymorning routines, so you can see what we mean. What are yourpatterns around morning routines? They might be shower anddress, exercise, meditate or pray, eat breakfast, wake up childrenand help them get ready for school, walk the dog, feed the cat, checke-mail, and so on. Of course some days may be different. Perhapsyou exercise three mornings a week, not five; or perhaps you bringyour children to school or daycare only on specific days. Even so,you choose how long the morning routines take, then block thattime in your calendar.Next, what are your patterns for when you first get to work?

For example: Boot up your computer, get coffee, meet with cowork-ers, and handle your e-mail and voice mail.What are your patterns during the day at work? You likely do

such things as check your e-mail and voice mail at several differenttimes, attend routine meetings, write routine reports, set asidetime for phone calls, respond to customers, and then there’s lunch.What are your patterns when you leave work and head home?

By this we mean activities such as commuting, grocery shopping,preparing meals, picking up the kids, eating, spending time withthe children and your significant other, or tending to your hobbies,making phone calls, reading, watching television, and the like.No one seems to have enough time. Yet everyone has 168 hours

each week—all the time there is. Let’s identify what you do withyour 168 hours. Use tables 7-1 and 7-2 to assist you in identifyinghow much time you spend on certain activities and routines in yourpersonal and work life.To complete the charts, look at each activity and estimate how

much time you spend each day and how many days you spend each


Table 7-1. Estimating your personal time.

PERSONAL TIMEHOURS DAYS TOTAL

PER PER HOURSTHINGS TO DO DAY WEEK WEEK

Sleeping

Eating—preparing meals, cleaning up

Shopping—food, clothes, etc.

Children—reading, playtime, homework

Spouse or Partner—time alone or dating

Family and Friends—visits, outings, phone calls

Play, Fun, Entertainment—movies, sports, theater

Play, Fun, Entertainment—TV, games, hobbies

Education and Personal Growth—classes, webinars

Financial—paying bills, budgeting, investing

Maintenance—houseclean, lawn work, laundry

Maintenance—car, computer, other devices

Health and Fitness—exercise, biking, etc.

Personal Care—showering, dressing, etc.

Reading and Writing—magazines, newspapers

Spiritual—prayer, meditation, attending services

Travel Personal—errands, family events

Other

Other

Other

Other

Grand Total

week engaged in that activity. Starting with personal activities, youwill find that you do some activities each day of the week. For in-stance, you may sleep eight hours a day, seven days a week, for atotal of fifty-six hours. Other activities might not happen on a daily


basis, but a few times a week. For instance, your exercise routinecould be one hour a day, three days a week, for a total of threehours a week.When you have completed entering your time estimates, multi-

ply the hours per day by the days per week and enter your totalhours for that activity each week. Then tally your ‘‘total hours perweek’’ column. The total represents the estimated amount of timeyou spend on personal activities each week.Using the same process as above, complete the chart in table 7-

2 to calculate the amount of time you estimate you spend on workactivities.Now add your total personal hours and your total work hours.

Are they greater than or less than 168 hours?

Table 7-2. Estimating work time.

WORK TIMEHOURS DAYS TOTAL

PER PER HOURSTHINGS TO DO DAY WEEK WEEK

Meetings

Conference Calls

Phone Calls

E-mail

Reports

Administration

Travel

Project Work

Social

Other

Other

Other

Other

Grand Total


TRACKING HOW LONG ACTIVITIES TAKE

Now that you’ve calculated how long you think these activities take,it’s time to match the plan to the actual time spent. Create a timelog similar to the one shown in table 7-3. For the next three days,track how you actually spend your time. Try to be as specific as youcan without being handcuffed to your time log. Notice and recordthe following information:

• How many activities in your week took more than the amount oftime you estimated in the personal time and work time charts?

• How many activities took less time than you estimated?• How many activities did you engage in that you didn’t account forin your time log?

We predict that looking at the reality of how you actually spendyour time will be sobering. But what does all this time estimatingand logging have to do with your year and the life that you createdto be one of accomplishment and fulfillment? Well, once you be-come clearer about how much time you have left in your life (afteryour routines), you will find it easier to make the choices that arealigned with what you want to accomplish. You will naturally be-come more discriminating about how you spend your time. You willfind yourself choosing to do what matters the most.By now you are beginning to account for how your day really

proceeds, hour by hour. Next, let’s look at scheduling practices thatoptimize your available time.

EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES AND PRACTICES

We’ve chosen a few scheduling techniques to assist you in designingyour days with intention and purpose. These practices further sup-port you in treating your calendar as your virtual butler, serving upthe activities and appointments of your day. Using your calendar to

Table 7-3. Sample log for tracking your time

TIME DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES

6:00 AM

6:30 AM

7:00 AM

7:30 AM

8:00 AM

8:30 AM

9:00 AM

9:15 AM

9:30 AM

9:45 AM

10:00 AM

10:15 AM

10:30 AM

10:45 AM

11:00 AM

11:15 AM

11:30 AM

11:45 AM

12:00 PM

12:15 PM

12:30 PM

12:45 PM

1:00 PM

1:15 PM

1:30 PM

1:45 PM

2:00 PM

2:15 PM

2:30 PM

2:45 PM

3:00 PM

3:15 PM

3:30 PM

3:45 PM

4:00 PM

4:15 PM

4:30 PM

4:45 PM

5:00 PM

5:30 PM

6:00 PM

6:30 PM

7:00 PM


guide you through the demands of your life is one of the keys togetting more time for you.

Creating Fifteen-Minute Segments

As you begin entering what you will do in your day in your calendar,you may find it useful to have fifteen-minute segments in your cal-endar, rather than the default thirty. With more segments in yourcalendar, you can enter more information about what you aredoing. You can set up these segments by right-clicking anywhereon your calendar day and, under ‘‘Other Settings,’’ choosing fifteenminutes from the ‘‘time scale’’ menu.

Using Color Labels

Color-coding is a useful way to get a quick view of daily, weekly, ormonthly activities of a specific type or realm. Some of the ways wehave found people differentiate the color by are:

• Accomplishments—one color for each realm• Travel (to and from work or between appointments)• Meetings• Phone calls• Family time

If you want to create your own labels rather than use the presetlabels provided in Microsoft Outlook for the color-coding, click onthe ‘‘Calendar Coloring’’ icon at the top left of your screen (next tothe delete icon) and follow the directions for editing.

Handling Interruptions, Distractions, or Emergencies

Interruptions, distractions, and emergencies are part of our life andday, and we need to allocate time for them. One strategy to reducethe impact that interruptions and emergencies have on our sched-ule is to do a preemptive strike and schedule time for them in ad-vance.For example, if you have set aside 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. each


morning for ‘‘interruptions and distractions,’’ chances are you prob-ably won’t be interrupted the entire time. You may not be inter-rupted at that time at all. However, you probably can count on ahalf hour of interruptions, distractions, or emergencies beforenoon. What you’ve done by allocating this time is to keep yourselfon schedule. After all, airlines ‘‘pad’’ the actual amount of traveltime a flight takes in order to increase the chance that they willarrive on time; likewise, you can increase your chances of stayingon schedule when you account for the inevitable interruptions, dis-tractions, or emergencies that happen in your life each day.When we don’t account for this time, we:

• Miss deadlines• Work longer to meet deadlines• Feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do in so little time• Aren’t satisfied with what we produced or accomplished each day• Become frustrated and upset with the interruptions

Each of these conditions only adds to our stress. So, at somebasic level, it is better if you start telling yourself the truth aboutwhat’s actually going on in your life. Many of us are overly optimis-tic about what we can actually accomplish in any given day. Helpyourself and include at least two appointments during the day forinterruptions and distractions. What’s the worst thing that couldhappen? You’re not interrupted that much? Well, great, then youhave some ‘‘free’’ time. What could be better?Figure 7-6 depicts a way to set an appointment for interrup-

tions. When you enter a description on the subject line, have funand be creative. For example:

Interruptions and emergencies are happening. No stress here.I’ve made room for them in my life.

Select ‘‘Tentative’’ for ‘‘Show time as.’’ That way, if you are on acommon file server, others will see that your time isn’t actuallybooked, it’s just tentative, possibly making you available for a groupmeeting.Do not set a reminder for this appointment either. There’s no


Figure 7-6. Handling interruptions and emergencies.

need to remind yourself to be interrupted, and you won’t need todismiss the reminder when it goes off.

Scheduling Transition Time

With our busy lives we often stop to do shopping and make pick-ups and drop-offs between work and home. This routine should bereflected in your calendar at the time you need to be doing it. Sinceyou’ll be in the car or on public transportation and not at yourcomputer when you need to do these tasks, we suggest you makean appointment for the transition time and write all the stops youneed to make and items you need to buy or drop off in the body ofthe appointment. In the subject line of the appointment, include areminder to print out the details and take them with you. If yoursmartphone syncs with your calendar, you’re all set.


Scheduling from the Outcome Backward

Another best practice we encourage you to incorporate that we findworks well for projects and meetings comes from the sports world.Some of the best athletes in the world use this approach—greatgolfers in particular. Besides practicing, practicing, and practicing,studying the course, and analyzing his own swing, a great golfer likePhil Mickelson envisions how that ball will land in the hole. Hethinks about the distance, the wind, the weather, and a myriad ofother things. He envisions the ball moving from the tee into thehole. Then, and only then, does he address the ball and swing.This practice works wonderfully for reaching our intended out-

comes for projects and meetings. Visualizing what success lookslike, and being clear about what the desired outcomes are, informsour actions. The perspective allows us to consider each action thatneeds to occur for us to reach the desired result. To illustrate, thinkof a project that you are about to begin or a meeting that you needto plan. Use the following questions to guide your planning.

• What is the outcome you intend to produce?• What does it look like when it’s complete?• If it’s a project, what’s in it for you and for others?• What needs to be done for your intended outcome to occur?

Looking at the answers to the above questions, what items doyou need to schedule in your calendar? Now, schedule them in yourcalendar.

EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING INCLUDES YOUR FAMILY AS WELL

Many parents of school-age children are concerned about how tokeep track of their children’s schedules. Rather than keeping as-sorted notes or trying to keep track of your children’s various activ-ities and events in your head, use your calendar. Of course, you’llneed a method for recording the children’s appointments withoutinterfering with or obscuring the view of other work or personal


appointments you’ve already scheduled. This technique also worksfor coordinating schedules with a spouse or appointments whencaring for aging parents.

Using the ‘‘All Day Event’’ Feature

One method that works well is to use the ‘‘all day event’’ feature.Begin by right-clicking anywhere on your calendar to open an ap-pointment form. If you want to be reminded that April is at soccerpractice between 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., and that the school busbrings her to practice, and that your neighbor, Ann, brings herhome to her house, where your spouse picks April up at 5:30 p.m.,type in a reminder such as the one shown in figure 7-7.If you have several children with different schedules, you may

want to choose a different color for each one. Figure 7-8 shows howthe appointment looks on your calendar, with the note about Aprilwithin your view all day, but without obscuring the rest of yourschedule. If you have several children with various schedules, youcan see how much stress and concern this can save. It’s a lot quickerand easier to look at the top of your calendar when you get a callfrom your spouse asking, ‘‘What time did you want me to pick Aprilup—or was it Tammy?’’There are a few more items to take care of to make sure April

is set:

Figure 7-7. Tracking your children’s schedules.


Figure 7-8. Using the “all day event” feature for your children’s schedules.

1. Make arrangements for Ann to take April home until yourhusband, Wes, arrives at 5:30 p.m.

2. Make arrangements for Wes to pick April up at Ann’s at 5:30.

3. Remind April to bring her soccer gear to school in the morning.

You want to be able to take care of any outstanding items at thesame time you are noting April’s schedule. You want to thinkthrough all that needs to happen and account for it so that thedetails of April’s afternoon are not weighing on your mind.Items 1 and 2 on your list can be handled as e-mail, text mes-

sages, voice mail messages, or whatever method you find most ef-fective. The key is to send that message or make that call at thesame time you enter April’s schedule. Then it’s off your mind.Item 3 is something for you to do or make sure is handled. Here

are a couple ways to handle this task:

• Make it part of the morning checklist for your children.• Set a reminder on your calendar next to your morning routines.

Figure 7-9 is an example of a morning checklist inserted into acalendar.If you choose to embed a checklist in your morning routines,

we suggest you set the appointment to recur after you insert the


Figure 7-9. Adding a morning checklist to your children’s schedules.

checklist, so it will carry through to every appointment. The pointof the checklist is to get things off your mind and into a reliablesystem. Not only does it keep you from forgetting something orsomeone important, it frees you up to be more present in the mo-ment with your children and family.

Communicating with Your Family Electronically

Although at first this practice might sound too businesslike, wehave found that using the meeting request feature of MicrosoftOutlook works very well when spouses or significant others use acomputer or sync their phones or smartphones with their com-puter.When you get an invitation or think of something you may

want to do as a couple, instead of sending an e-mail message, senda meeting request with the date and time and with all the pertinentinformation in the body of the message to your spouse or partner.Put any notes about why you think it’s a good idea in the body ofthe message. This way you are making it easy for them to look atthe proposal and respond to the request. Your partner can evensuggest something else for that time or another time for that event.


If you have teenage children, it is extremely useful to set a re-minder to text them about specific appointments, such as:

• Dentist visits• Taking out the trash and other chores• Picking up their sister from Girl Scouts

One of my clients sets a reminder in her Outlook calendar forher child’s 4:30 p.m. dentist appoint so she can text at 2:30 p.m.,when the teenager is getting out of school and needs to see it.

SCHEDULING SUMMARY

When you are scheduling for effectiveness you are using your calen-dar to design the days of your life. This practice makes it possibleto accomplish other results as well:

• Your schedule is now based on your ‘‘really available’’ time, ratherthan hoped-for time.

• You are able to account for the time you spend on the routines ofyour life.

• You have chosen what is most important for you to accomplish andscheduled enough time for you to complete those objectives.

• You have looked at your project or whatever you are out to accom-plish from the outcome backward, being clear about what your endgoal is even before you begin.

• You can be accountable to yourself and others for your promises anddeliverables.

COACHING TIPS

To be successful at implementing these new scheduling practices:Pace yourself. Do not try to take on everything at once.


Keep in mind the old adage, ‘‘Inch by inch is a cinch.’’ Committo taking on one or two of the scheduling techniques. As you prac-tice, you will develop new habits that will allow you to design yourdays so that you have more time for you.The next chapter covers designing our weeks to ensure that we

are considering our annual accomplishments, learning what workedand what didn’t work in the previous week, and planning the weekahead.

8

DREAMS COME TRUEWHEN YOU PLAN

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life youhave imagined.

—HENRY DAVID THOREAU

No one can live your life but you. No one can create your lifebut you. In today’s hyper-busy world, we often get so caught

up in just catching up that we fail to take the time to live our lives.In chapters 4 and 5, you took the time to reflect on what’s most

important in your life, and you used those findings to write outannual accomplishments to fulfill your dreams and goals—to, ineffect, create your life a year in advance. In this chapter you’ll learna process to keep these dreams and goals alive for you each andevery week.

LIVING INTO YOUR CREATED LIFE

Review and creation is a practice that you need to do each week.Schedule this weekly session with yourself for thirty to forty-five

Dreams Come True When You Plan 115

minutes. Choosing a time to review and plan is the critical practicefor steering the ship of your life. Find a time when you are lesslikely to be interrupted. Many people have found that sometimeover the weekend works best—Sunday evenings, for example, orsome other quiet time. Guard and cherish this time.The first step in your weekly review is an exercise designed to

clear your mind, leaving you free to create next week and the restof your life. To start, take out your capture tool (e.g., notepad, com-position book, tape recorder, BlackBerry, etc.) and set a timer forten minutes. Then write down or record anything that is top ofmind for you. If you find yourself stuck after a few minutes, don’tstop. Think about the different aspects of your life, such as work,home, family, or clubs, and your obligations or desires associatedwith each. For example, ‘‘I need to prepare the outline for the reportthat is due in two weeks,’’ or perhaps, ‘‘I have to schedule an ap-pointment with my dental hygienist.’’ Something will come to mind;you can count on it. When you feel you have written down every-thing and completely cleared your mind, then refer to the questionsin table 8-1 and either 1) write answers to each of the questions ona separate sheet of paper, or 2) write down or record anything thatcomes to mind as you mentally respond to these questions. Thepurpose of answering these questions is to provide you with anopportunity to track your progress and tune and correct.We suggest you place these questions, and any others you find

useful, in the body of your weekly review appointment in your cal-endar before you set the recurring appointment. This way thesequestions will always be where you need them, when you needthem.The weekly review is a time when you can catch up with your-

self. It is when you catch those things that weren’t completed atthe end of the day, not because you didn’t schedule time to dothem, but perhaps because you didn’t allow enough time for inter-ruptions and emergencies, or you didn’t schedule enough time tohandle your e-mail and voice mail, or you didn’t allocate enoughtime to handle a certain project. As we like to say, ‘‘Life happens.’’It’s also the time to see how your week correlated with your


Table 8-1. Weekly review questions.

1 What did I accomplish?How long did tasks take compared to the time you allocated for them?Do you want to “adjust” any time allocations you set for the coming week?

2 What didn’t you accomplish that you intended to? And why?Where are those items now? In your calendar or “Someday” folder, or some other place?Have you scheduled them in your calendar for next week or month?Have you moved them to your Someday folder?Have you deleted them altogether?

Make peace with all that you didn’t do (time is still on your side).Pat yourself on the back for all that you did accomplish. You rock!

3 What did you accomplish toward your newly created life?Pull out your annual accomplishments and take a look.Which realms did you work on? Which ones weren’t touched?

4 Plan next week. Open your calendar and look at your week.Are you still committed to doing what you previously scheduled?Do you need more or less time to complete any of the items in your calendar?Make the adjustment.Take out your preferred capture device (e.g., notepad, tape recorder, smartphone) and triage your scheduled tasks.

annual accomplishments. Which realms did you work on fulfillingand which were untouched?For example, as you look through your realms, you may notice

that last week you spent no time with family or friends. You pullout your calendar intent to rectify this oversight, look at the comingweek, and see it’s packed. Since you are committed to live the lifeyou created, how are you going to include family and friends thisweek? Take the time now to see what tasks or appointments youcan move on your calendar. Perhaps you can take advantage ofbeing in one location where there is family close by or where youcan meet with friends. Can you invite a family member or a friendto join you at an event that you are already scheduled to go to? Ifnot this week, how about next?For those of you who use Microsoft Outlook for your calendar,

one way to easily see how much time you are spending living into


your created life is to color-code your time. Select one color for eachof your realms. Then, when you schedule the time to do somethingin that realm, it’s easy to see. For example, if you want to track howmuch time you are spending on an area of accomplishment, lookfor the red, the yellow, or the green blocks of color-coded tasks orevents.Take a final critical look at your coming week. If you are seeing

a week that’s already full, look again; is there anything that you canmove, delete, or delegate to someone else?Choosing how your life proceeds is truly up to you. This can

sound trite in today’s cynical world, but consider that once youknow what you want, you will be taking one step at a time to accom-plish it. For example:

• How much money I have in the future is based on how much moneyI am saving today. (Do you have time in your calendar to manageyour savings and investments?)

• How fat or thin I will be tomorrow depends on what I eat and howmuch (or how little) I exercise today. (How much exercise time doyou have in your calendar?)

The first thing many diet plans recommend is tracking whatyou eat and drink each day. Hmm, that sounds a lot like the exerciseyou learned in chapter 7 for tracking your time and routines. Untilyou know what the issue is, you can’t effectively begin to alter it.So it is with the cause and effect of your life, and you don’t

often see it that clearly. It is easy for you to see how other demandson your time get in the way, but it is difficult to see how you get inthe way.

ENLISTING THE HELP OF THE UNIVERSE

There is a whole universe out there that becomes a willing resourceas soon as you open up to it. Writing your wishes as accomplish-ments gives you the space to choose how to fulfill them. Once you


decide what your life is going to look like, you become more awareof opportunities as they present themselves to you.When you write your accomplishments, you broadcast your

wishes to the universe, and you raise your antenna to receive theanswers. And, in your heightened state of receptivity, you will findthat you attract precisely the answers you seek. You might be en-gaged in a conversation with a stranger who starts discussing thetopic you were thinking about that morning. You become a magnetfor those things that will fulfill your accomplishments.

REVIEWING YOUR ANNUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS WEEKLY

You created your future when you wrote your annual accomplish-ments. You looked out a year ahead, created a list of what you willhave accomplished during this year, and envisioned what life will belike then. In that moment, you were living into the future. Now,during your weekly review and planning time, go back to your fu-ture (your accomplishments) and again envision what life will belike for you a year from now. From this place, choose which areasyou want to have an impact on this week.Some people like to look at their accomplishments once a

month, some once a quarter. When you first start, we encourageyou to look at them at least every week. Eventually, you will dis-cover a frequency that works for you. Each time you review youraccomplishments, you can ask yourself, ‘‘Is this what I truly want?’’If the answer is still ‘‘yes,’’ this is the time to review your progressand see what structures and resources you need to set up to achieveyour goals.Next, go to your annual accomplishments list and look at the

items you have written in that category and choose what you willschedule in your calendar. You have now created your week fromyour future. Why do we make such a point of this? After all, youare only scheduling, right? What we want to impress on you is thatyou do have a choice over how your days are designed.


Designing your days and weeks from the future you’ve createdfor yourself is a powerful practice. Writing out ‘‘how it’s going tobe’’ when you meet yourself at the end of the year provides youwith the space and time to create your year and have it happen.Will you complete everything that you set out to complete thisweek? You probably won’t, since you aren’t practiced yet at under-standing how long it takes you to complete tasks. But you do havethe opportunity. If, however, you do not make the effort to designyour days and weeks, you ensure that you will not accomplish whatyou want.When you take the time to choose what you are going to do,

and set yourself up to make it possible, you have a much betterchance of staying present in the moment, instead of merely reactingwhen you’re faced with interruptions, distractions, emergencies(perceived or real), and all the rest that the world throws at you. Itis these few seconds, when you make choices about how your daysare designed, that put you in control and keep you from being sweptalong by life.

WALL OF NO’S

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling book Eat, Pray, Love,mentioned in an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show a strategyfor having focus in her life. She talked about surrounding herselfwith a ‘‘wall of no’s’’ so that she could deliver on what she wassaying yes to. For many women (and men), it is tempting to crowdour lives with yeses, and not designate time for ourselves and forthe true priorities in our lives. There is great power that comes frombeing able to say ‘‘no.’’A business’s strategic plan helps its leaders decide not only what

to do, but also what not to do. In creating a strategic plan for yourlife, it is equally important to identify what you are going to say‘‘yes’’ to and what you are going to say ‘‘no’’ to. The clearer you areabout how your time is being spent, and the more you fill your dayswith what you say is most important, the easier it is to say ‘‘no.’’


The Fine Art of Saying No

One of the great arts in life is learning how to say ‘‘no’’ in serviceto a higher ‘‘yes.’’ Sometimes we see our task as ‘‘telling them no insuch a way that they aren’t upset and they still like me.’’ But this isan almost impossible task because, if you are trying to manage an-other person’s reaction, you may end up losing sight of what’s im-portant to you. Furthermore, you are trying to control somethingover which you have no control. So instead, as William Ury statesin The Power of a Positive No, see your task as, ‘‘I need to tell themno in a way that is clear, honest, and respectful, and then let themreact however they react.’’1

Listed here are some specific keywords or phrases you can usein saying no to other people’s requests in a way that is authentic.Your tone and underlying intent need to be congruent with yourwords to have a positive impact.

• No, thank you.• Thank you for the gracious invitation. I regret that I must decline.• That sounds like a lot of fun, which makes it even harder for me todecline.

• I’m not able to do that right now.• It is no for now.• I have another commitment at that time.• I’m sorry, I have plans that night. Thank you.• I have an important family commitment.• I’d rather decline than do a mediocre job.• I’d like to help out; it’s that I have other projects I am committed tofinishing before I take on anything else.

• I’m sorry; I really can’t give that project the attention it deserves.• I’d love to help, but I’m on a strict deadline for the next few days.Let me know if there’s any way I can help another time.

• Thank you. This really isn’t my strong suit. Let me connect you withsomeone who can do it.

• Some things have come up that need my attention.• No, I won’t be able to make it, and please let me know how it goes.• I’m sorry, as a general rule I don’t participate in [insert activityhere]. If there’s another way I can help, let me know.


• I have a policy of [insert policy]. Example: ‘‘I have a policy of notgossiping.’’

• I can’t right now, but I can do it [insert a specific time here].• Unfortunately, I have other commitments right now. If you’d like, Ican get back with you at [insert a specific time here].

• I can’t right now, and I know you will do a wonderful job yourself.

What can you say no to that can give rise to a higher yes? Trythis exercise: Think of one to two people you have a hard timesaying no to, or you feel you can’t say no to. Write down three tofive different ways you can say no to them. Use the blank form intable 8-2.The assumption we are making is that you want more time for

you so that you can do what you want, when you want, and howyou want more often. Right? Our signature motto is ‘‘create yourlife and design your days.’’ If you want to have more time to dowhat your heart desires, then it will be critical for you to activelyparticipate in designing and planning your life.Your dreams can come true. In our mind, there is no question

about that. But make no mistake: Dreams won’t come true by wish-ing, hoping, thinking, wondering, or pleading. Dreams come trueby being intentional, purposeful, grateful, and open, then takingcommitted, directed action toward the desired outcome. In thischapter, you learned how to keep the dreams of what you want toaccomplish in front of you by reviewing your annual accomplish-ments and ensuring that every week you schedule time in your cal-endar to take action toward your dreams. The beauty of this processis that you’ll begin to see your dreams unfold and come true in yourlife right before your eyes. You won’t have to take our word on this

Table 8-2. Ways to say no.

NAME HOW TO SAY NO


one, because ‘‘seeing is believing,’’ and if you take on these practices,you’re destined to become a believer. Dreams do come true whenyou plan.In the following chapters, our attention turns to how to manage

the daily deluge of electronic data. You’ll learn a technique for han-dling e-mail and social media so that you can be in control and getthings done.

9

MANAGING E-MAIL

The life we want is not merely the one we have chosen andmade. It is the one we must be choosing and making.

—WENDELL BERRY

E-mail is a fairly recent phenomenon without a direct compari-son. Unlike voice mail, it is visual; yet, unlike a letter, which isvisual, there is no physical manifestation. It exists, but only in abox, and when you turn off the box, it doesn’t exist anymore. Wecan ignore it.Think about it. E-mail doesn’t inhabit a physical space, but we

like to say it takes up psychic space—it clutters your mind. It wouldbe difficult to store thousands and thousands of files in our cubicles,yet we can store massive quantities of e-mail in our computer in-boxes. And although there are fewer space constraints in the cyberworld, we are affected as much by cyber clutter as we are by physicalclutter. When the subject line is no longer bold, indicating that wehave at least glanced at the e-mail, we skip over it easily. Yet it stillsits there and is met by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of othermessages, adding to the mountain of things we have to do andperpetuating our state of overwhelm.It is time to let go of this habit of letting e-mail messages sit

idle in your inbox. This chapter instructs you on how to keep yourinbox empty. An empty inbox is a clear space that allows you to


function optimally and takes away the dread of looking at youre-mail to begin with.

THE ELECTRONIC TYRANT

In the early 1990s, when e-mail first began gaining popularity, itwas exciting to receive messages from other people and fun to writethem back, knowing that our replies would reach them instantly. Atsome point, e-mail shifted from being a new way of communicatingto being an automated work assigner. It became the way peoplewould give us our daily tasks. Soon, our bosses and coworkers weresending us messages such as, ‘‘I need the changes to these docu-ments right away,’’ ‘‘Where is my report?’’ and ‘‘You didn’t get backto my previous e-mail message.’’ E-mail became a little dictator.Now, the first thing people do when they arrive at work is read

their e-mail messages. We all knew from the start that e-mail wasmeant to be a communication mechanism, but we didn’t think itwould become another demanding part of our job. Many peoplenow use e-mail to structure their workday, even though they al-ready know what their job is. They know their role in the companyand understand what their department does. Yet they still go totheir inbox to see what there is to do.People are loyal to their e-mail. There appears to be an unwrit-

ten expectation that you are accessible and available, so if someonesends you something, you will read it, understand it, and respondimmediately. That’s the deal. And when you break the deal, you arenot a team player, you are not on top of things, you are not compe-tent, and something is wrong with you. Every day, and sometimesconstantly throughout the day, you have to check your e-mail be-cause there could be something there that, if left unopened, willhave an impact on how you are perceived.E-mail has become an electronic tyrant. It says, ‘‘Read me, feed

me, do what I say.’’ It demands our attention, directs our work, andhas a controlling presence in our lives.

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THE EVOLUTION OF BEING OVERWHELMED

It is not the volume of the e-mail that is the main issue causing theexperience of feeling overwhelmed; it is our relationship to oure-mail that has generated a mountain of cyber clutter.Before e-mail at work, there was interoffice mail. Most people

did not have an issue with interoffice mail because it arrived in astream, not a flood, and people did not let it pile up the way theydo with e-mail. Also, at one time many people had office assistantswho would handle their correspondence and sort out what was rele-vant.When e-mail came along, businesses immediately recognized

that it was a way for them to eliminate some of the paper clutter ofinteroffice mail and reduce the number of administrative assistantsneeded in the company. Most employees could handle their owncommunications and be their own administrative assistants.It used to be that the only individuals with computers and ac-

cess to e-mail were businesspeople. Before the e-mail boom, peoplein high-tech companies might receive twenty e-mails a day, butthese were interoffice e-mails and could be dealt with in a workday.Now, everyone and their grandmother has an e-mail account, andall these people are sending us messages, whether we want them ornot. E-mail usage has exploded, and we are not keeping up with itsrate of expansion. The work practices that we developed ten,twenty, or thirty years ago are not sufficient to deal with the vol-ume of e-mail received daily, and many of us are overwhelmed atthe thought of checking our inbox. There are great costs associatedwith this wondrous technology of real-time communication.

MADISON AVENUE WANTS YOU

There are numerous studies, software programs, and analytic toolsthat report on how we read or don’t read e-mailed advertising mes-sages. An entirely new vocabulary has been established to define


what we click through to, what we ‘‘hit,’’ and what we do or don’tdo with any given message sent to us. There’s even a science con-cerning when to send messages for the best chance of a response.Seminars are available to train marketers in the psychology of

how we behave when we view or don’t view their messages andwhat they can do to improve their chances that we will take someaction. According to Donovan Panone, vice president of online be-havior at the interactive advertising agency Spunlogic, sellers ‘‘haveabout two to ten seconds to capture users’ attention and persuadethem to take action.’’1 These marketers are learning to:

• Understand the psychological process that takes place when youreceive their e-mail.

• Capitalize on the psychological factors of your intentions, motiva-tions, and obstacles.

• Choose e-mail tactics as they relate to different stages of the buyingprocess.

There is also a huge market for selling data about us to advertis-ers who can flood our inboxes with spam (unsolicited advertisingmessages). It has become so intense that we now purchase spam-blocking software in an attempt to keep these messages (and com-panies) away from our inboxes.Madison Avenue wants you! And it’s spending millions of dol-

lars to keep you in its sights. Advertisers are coming after you, andthey’re getting better at honing in on how to get you to act whenthey send you e-mail. This contributes to the explosion of the num-ber of messages in your inbox, and adds to your sense of it all beingtoo much.And you thought it was just your inbox that’s out of control. So

far we’ve only accounted for companies and organizations from theoutside world that are cluttering up inboxes everywhere. We alsohave those inside our realm of influence: friends, family members,coworkers, and colleagues, such as members of organizations thatwe support, and so on. It’s common now for people to receive hun-dreds of e-mail messages in a single day.

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SINKING IN OUR PRIVATE SHAME

For many of us, there is a private shame associated with not re-sponding to e-mail messages in a timely fashion and not managingour inbox, leaving hundreds if not thousands of e-mails lying inwait. No one else knows (other than your system administratorperhaps) how many messages are residing in your inbox. So you arealone in your private state of shame. You are hiding, and don’t wantanybody to know that your inbox is overflowing and out of control;you think you should know how to handle the volume, but youdon’t, and every day the e-mails keep mounting.It’s not hopeless, because the key to managing your inbox is

having a reliable system and using it consistently. Later in thischapter we outline a step-by-step process for handling the ever-increasing volume of incoming e-mails and for maintaining anempty inbox.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT DECIDING

Podiatrists get a lot of business from people with foot pain, andsometimes their patients are convinced they need surgery to allevi-ate the problem. You might be surprised that podiatrists often makethis diagnosis: ‘‘You don’t have a foot problem. You have a shoeproblem. If you change the type of shoes you wear, you’ll eliminatethe pain.’’Similarly, we don’t have an e-mail problem; we have a decision-

making problem. The volume of our e-mail is not the issue. It is ourhabit of not deciding to tackle the problem and believing that thereare no consequences to our indecision.There are consequences to not deciding. When the volume of

e-mail builds we may feel that we will never be able to get our armsaround all we have to do and handle. We feel guilty because wemeant to get back to someone who e-mailed us, and now we haven’t


responded to that three-month-old message. We feel inadequatebecause everyone else seems to be able to handle their e-mail andwe’re the only ones having an issue. We feel that we are not goodenough, not strong enough, and not smart enough, because good,strong, and smart people wouldn’t have these problems with some-thing as simple as e-mail. The consequences to not deciding areworry and self-loathing: worry because we are afraid that we willforget something; and self-loathing because we feel incompetentdoing our jobs.Our families bear the lingering effect of our not deciding. When

we come home from work after a long day, we are distracted by thelaundry list of things that we didn’t finish. We are still thinkingabout an e-mail we forgot to send when, all of a sudden, one of ourchildren comes up to us with pride and says that the teacher readtheir story in front of the class and we don’t even hear it. We’restill back in the office, lost in our list of everything we haven’t done.There are consequences that we may not be consciously aware

of as it relates to our e-mail management habits. Our sense of peaceof mind and well-being erodes when we are constantly concernedabout reading and responding to e-mail messages.It can be a particularly harrowing experience when we have not

been able to check our e-mail for a few days. We open our inbox andare inundated with new messages. These e-mails are like incomingmissiles. We want to take cover, we want to run, and we want tohide, but we have to deal with them.

THREE MOST COMMON E-MAIL PROBLEMS

We often hold on to our e-mails, secretly hoping that we will beable to read and respond to them all someday. The simple fact isthat hardly anyone will ever read and respond to each and everye-mail in their inbox. Once we accept this fact, we can get a handleon our e-mail and keep it from controlling us. Let’s explore threepredominant problems that make handling e-mail challenging.

Managing E-Mail 129

Problem 1: Many E-Mails Are Not Targeted to Us

Telemarketing used to be a major problem. Companies would callus day and night, interrupting dinner or waking us from a weekendnap. Then the National Do Not Call Registry was established, whichallows us to block most telemarketers. So now the majority of peo-ple who call us, approximately 80 percent, are people that we needor wish to talk to. They have something to share, discuss, or set upwith us. Most phone calls and voice messages are specifically in-tended for us.Unlike the personal messages we receive by telephone, many of

the messages that enter our inbox are not directed at us. Theymight be messages that we are copied on, newsletter subscriptionsor distribution lists that no longer interest us, or messages thathave slipped through the spam filter.

Problem 2: There’s No Structure toManage the Volume of Our E-Mail

How many people do you know who have more than 100 savedvoice mail messages? Not one, right? Our phone service won’t allowus to save more than about twenty messages. There is a structurein place for controlling the habit of letting our volume of messagesget out of hand.With e-mail, however, there are few limits to how many mes-

sages we can save. Even when your system manager limits the sizeof your inbox, you are able to save several thousand messages.We are in uncharted territory in terms of the volume of the

e-mail we can hold on to. And without structures in place, we allowourselves to engage in flights of fancy about what we can keepthere: ‘‘Oh, I might want to go to Kuala Lumpur someday,’’ or ‘‘Thatconference sounds so great,’’ or ‘‘I should read that book when Ihave the time.’’ We keep these messages hanging around for weeks,months, and even years with the fantasy that we might need themsomeday. We have no agreement with ourselves about how to man-age this barrage that comes into our personal inbox, and so wemaintain the flood of 100, 500, even 5,000 e-mails that we maynever read again after first opening them.


Problem 3: We Are Addicted to Our E-Mail

Many people are addicted to e-mail. If they are not monitoring theirmessages constantly, they become noticeably uncomfortable. Westrongly encourage that you allow yourself only a specific numberof times each day to handle your e-mail and that you schedule thosetimes in your calendar. For some people, this is an unreasonablesuggestion. The urge to check messages is too strong. The tempta-tion to be browsing our inboxes is too great. We need to get a fix,so to speak. Somehow, we believe that there is something so fabu-lous (or so terrible) entering our inboxes that we stop everythingand jump in and read the message.Think about this: There you are, engaged in a phone call with a

client, yet as soon as you hear the ding, ‘‘You’ve got mail,’’ or seeyou have a new message on your screen, you go to your inbox andyou scan the message. Why would you distract yourself with a mes-sage that might be spam while you are engaged in a discussion witha client?One of our clients complained over and over again that his man-

ager checked e-mail and answered his telephone during their sched-uled meetings. It bothered him so much that he resorted toscheduling their meetings in a conference room or anywhere buthis manager’s office.You hear the tapping of keyboards during conference calls; you

see a cell phone perched above the steering wheel in the car next toyou on the expressway; you pin on your badge of honor for respond-ing at 2:00 a.m. And you say this is not an addiction?Lisa, a participant in one of our workshops, was convinced that

she could not change her habits. She had to check her e-mail everyten or fifteen minutes because she was in HR. And HR needs to beresponsive to people: ‘‘H stands for human and R for resources,’’she explained with emphasis.Having committed to give it a try, she shared with us what had

happened since she changed her e-mail practices: ‘‘For the first time,I am getting out of work on time. I don’t need to stay evenings toget reports written; now, I can do them during the day.’’ She leteverybody in her department know that she looks at her e-mail

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every two hours. For her, learning to manage her e-mail was themost insightful part of the whole workshop. It is the practice thathas helped her regain some control over her day. She loved her jobbut it was consuming her life, and changing her habits arounde-mail gave her control.

THE SECRET TO MANAGING E-MAIL IS TRIAGE

In chapter 6 we learned how to empty our capture tool daily usinga triage method, the same process used by emergency room person-nel, surgeons, nurses, and other caretakers who are trained andpracticed in how to deal with an onslaught of emergencies, makingquick decisions about what gets handled first, second, and third.The dictionary definition of the verb ‘‘to triage’’ has evolved tomean ‘‘order things by rank or importance.’’ We are recommendingthat you apply the principles of triage to your e-mail as well.Of all the new practices in this book, learning to triage e-mail

often makes the biggest impact in people’s lives. Imagine this sce-nario: You open your inbox in the morning and there are severalnew messages that want your attention. Because you now knowhow to triage (sort and handle) your messages, by midafternoonyour inbox is empty. That’s right, empty! All of your messages havebeen dealt with. I know, it sounds impossible, yet when you makesimple choices about your inbox, this can be the world in whichyou live. These are not choices of complexity; they are choices ofconsistency.

CONTROLLING YOUR E-MAIL IN THREE STEPS

How do you tame your inbox? Here are some practical steps formanaging your e-mail:


• Separate the facts from the feelings.• Schedule e-mail handling time.• Set up your e-mail triage folders.

The suggestions outlined here are based on implemention with Mi-crosoft Outlook, the most popular e-mail product, but they can beadapted to most other e-mail applications.

STEP 1: SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE FEELINGS

Let’s examine the volume of e-mail you receive and how you dealwith it. First, assess your e-mail situation and how much of an in-trusion it is in your life. You also want to look at your attitudetoward e-mail. Then you need to reexamine these issues after youhave changed your e-mail habits for a week, two weeks, and amonth, so that you can gauge how your habits have changed. Whyis this important? Because any personal practices (whether new orold) are only as strong as your understanding of the impact, thecosts, and the commitment to a new way of life.

Assess Your E-Mail Volume and Handling Habits

Please write down your answer to each of the questions listed intables 9-1 and 9-2. There are no right or wrong answers, and youmay estimate. Assessing your current situation will allow you tocompare your e-mail efficiency after you have implemented e-mailtriage practices.

Assess How You Feel About E-Mail

Some people experience the constant barrage of e-mail as never-ending and overwhelming. For them it’s burdensome to have torespond to each message immediately, whether or not they want to.But if they don’t respond right away, as a consequence, they worry

Managing E-Mail 133

Table 9-1. E-mail assessment, part 1.

E-MAIL ASSESSMENT # OF E-MAILS

How many new e-mail messages do you receive in a day?

How many times do you browse through your e-mails each day?

How many “Already Read” messages are left in your inbox each night?

How many “Unread” messages are left in your inbox each night?

How much time do you spend on e-mail each day? _____ # of hours

that the sender may think that they are lazy, uncaring, unreliable,not on top of things, or irresponsible. Other people have a differentrelationship to their e-mail. They look at their inbox and see it as away of being and staying connected to others. For them, it isn’t aburden at all to be in communication with other people. They areproud of their ability to be responsive and appreciate being a re-source to others.To change your habits around e-mail, it’s important that you

get in touch with the actual physical and emotional sensations thatit invokes in you.Also notice if your feelings about e-mail change, depending on

your work setting and the day of the week. On Friday evening, you

Table 9-2. E-mail assessment, part 2.

E-MAIL ASSESSMENT

How would you characterize your relationship with e-mail?

What are your conditioned responses?

How do you feel when you open your inbox?


may be eager to clear out your inbox because you know that, comeMonday, it will be full again. But coming back from a vacation, youmay have a sinking feeling about opening your inbox, knowing thatyou will find hundreds of new messages to respond to. If you workin an environment where you are expected to respond immediately,you may feel anxious about making a mistake or sounding unim-pressive.

STEP 2: SCHEDULE E-MAIL HANDLING TIME

Set aside specific times in your day for handling your e-mail mes-sages—not browsing them, but handling them, which means eitheranswering, deleting, or filing messages. The discipline is to avoidlooking at your e-mail continuously during the day. We recommendthat you set aside time each day (three to four periods of fifteen tothirty minutes each) that you designate for emptying your inbox.For example, most people find that thirty minutes first thing in themorning, then again in the midafternoon, and once more beforeleaving work or retiring for the evening works well. It allows you tostay on top of messages without being a slave to them.For some of you, like Lisa in human resources, this is unthink-

able, ‘‘What! I can’t go that long without answering e-mail; my bosswould have my head. I have clients to respond to.’’If you have these concerns, one way to change is by retraining

others. Yes, consider how you have taught your boss, clients, orcoworkers that you are always sitting there waiting for an e-mail tocome from them so you can pounce on it and respond. Now it’stime to teach them something different. It will require that you talkwith them about your new e-mail practices and how you will workwith them. With your boss, you might use an adaptation of thisexample:‘‘Boss,’’ you say, ‘‘you know how we’ve been asked to take on

more assignments since the merger? Well, I’ve been looking at waysI can increase my capacity to be more effective. One of the areas I

Managing E-Mail 135

have identified is how much time I spend on e-mail each day. I’m inmy inbox responding to messages every minute I’m not in a meet-ing. So, I’m establishing a routine where I set aside time in themorning, then around noon, and again at the end of the day toread and handle my e-mail. That will increase my available time forhandling current and future projects. But that means a messagethat you send at, say, 9:00 a.m. won’t be read or answered by meuntil noon. Of course, if it is something that needs immediate at-tention you can call me. Does that work for you?’’Setting up a procedure for calling someone if you need an an-

swer urgently, in less than four hours, works well. It forces peopleout of their automatic habit of dashing off and sending anothere-mail message. Ask yourself, ‘‘How critical is it that I get an answerin fewer than four hours?’’The goal is to increase your productivity by freeing up your day

so that you are not just looking at your e-mail, but are handling itreliably three or four times a day. Figure 9-1 shows how to createappointments in your calendar for setting aside time first thing inthe morning, during lunchtime, and at the end of the day.‘‘You mean I can only be on my BlackBerry three times a day?

Figure 9-1. Setting times to handle your e-mail.


That’s absurd!’’ Many people who use a smartphone find the idea ofhandling their e-mail messages only three, four, or five times a daydifficult at first. They are currently tethered to their e-mail, check-ing it twenty, thirty, forty, or more times a day. If you travel, it maybe appropriate to glance at your e-mail between appointments inorder to stay on top of things. However, you still need to set asideadequate time to handle and respond to the messages and manageyour e-mail to maintain an empty inbox. As you learn about e-mailtriage, you may want to rethink the assumption that you alwaysneed to be available on a smartphone.Setting aside specific times each day to read and handle your

e-mail will add hours to your week. We waste so much time, morethan we realize, browsing and rereading e-mail without answeringit. Looking at the cyber clutter and the reminders of things we needto do but haven’t done yet drains our energy and saps our creativity,often leaving us feeling rushed, unfocused, overwhelmed, and anx-ious.Do it now. Open your calendar and create three reoccurring

appointments every day during the week that you designate as timeto handle—that is, read, respond, delete, or file—your e-mail. Thebest way to develop a new habit is to start now. So, yes, put downthe book and create these appointments.

STEP 3: SET UP YOUR E-MAIL TRIAGE FOLDERS

The system that we offer is simple yet effective. It works well if yousee it as a game of sorts. The goal is to keep your inbox empty. Yes,you read correctly—we said empty. You have already created threeto four times each day to read, respond to, and handle your e-mail.That alone frees up valuable time for doing some of the importanttasks that you might otherwise push aside because of a lack of time.To be able to continue this practice in the face of the ever-increasingvolume of e-mail, we suggest learning to triage. This system works

Managing E-Mail 137

for people receiving as few as fifty and as many as 250 or moremessages a day. It lets you choose when to handle and how to han-dle your messages.A triage process gives you the peace of mind that comes from

knowing that you will not forget or overlook an e-mail message thatdoesn’t have top priority but is still important. You will save timeby making decisions once, not repeatedly throughout the day.Table 9-3 outlines the triage decision process for handling

e-mails, describing the suggested folders you will set up and their

Table 9-3. E-mail triage process and decision tree.

Delete Delete any messages you have handled or don’t want or need to respond to.

Do It Now Instantly answer anything that you can respond to in less than two minutes. Think of the Nike brand slogan: “Just do it.”

Respond Today You decide, “This message must be handled today. I’m going to need more than two minutes to respond.” Drag it into your Respond Today e-mail folder. (Note: When you complete emptying your inbox, you dive right into this folder.)

Schedule a Specific “I need to do something about this. There is no way Time in Your Calendar I’m going to complete it today. I need to pull some to Answer/Complete materials together. I will schedule one or more

appointments in my calendar. It could take me an hour to respond.”

Waiting for Response For messages that you intend to respond to, but need information from someone else first, drag them to your Waiting for Response folder.

File It or Create File it in an existing folder if it’s important enough to a Folder file for future reference, or create a new folder for it.

Someday “I’m not going to respond to this message, nor am I going to take the time to set up a file for it. However, I’d like to ‘keep it around’ just in case. I’ll drag it to my Someday folder.”

Freedom For those of you who have a considerable number of read or unread messages in your inbox now, create a Freedom folder, which is where you can move all messages older than two days.


uses. In the same way you needed special folders to triage informa-tion recorded in your capture tool, you need new folders to triageyour incoming e-mail.

Create New E-Mail Folders

To get started, let’s create some folders (see figure 9-2). First, createan e-mail management folder. To keep it for easy access, label it�E-mail Management. You will notice that this file name appearsat the top of your personal folder list, rather than buried in themidst of your folders. To handle the increased volume of e-mail,where we may get hundreds of messages per day (as compared toour capture tool, where we may record dozens of items per day),we’ll make two new subfolders:

• Respond Today• Freedom

Next, let’s move some previously created folders into the �E-mail Management folder. They are:

Figure 9-2. Setting up your “Respond Today” and “Freedom”

e-mail management folders.

Managing E-Mail 139

• Waiting for Response• Someday

To move them, highlight the folder names in your personalfolder list and drag them into �E-mail Management. Highlight theWaiting for Response folder, left-click, then drag it to the �E-mailManagement folder (see figure 9-3). Repeat this process for theSomeday folder. Now everything you need to triage your capturetool and e-mail is easily accessible. When done, your new �E-mailManagement folders will look like the screen shown in figure 9-4.With the e-mail triage folders and subfolders in place, you are

ready to start practicing the e-mail triage process.

LEARNING THE TRIAGE PROCESS

Learning to triage e-mail often makes a big impact in people’s lives.Here’s how: You open your inbox in the morning and there aretwenty new messages and several that need your attention right

Figure 9-3. Setting up your Waiting for Response

e-mail management folder.


Figure 9-4. Completed setup of your e-mail management folders.

away. Because you now know how to triage, you Delete, Do, or Fileyour messages, responding to the ones you choose to respond tonow, leaving an empty inbox before your day even gets going.You may notice how familiar the e-mail triage process is to the

capture and release triage process covered in chapter 6. We havesimply added two more folders for e-mail to handle the increasedvolume. Let’s go through the e-mail triage decision tree, step bystep.

Delete

Delete it. Delete, delete, delete. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s like a videogame where you zap alien space invaders: Delete, delete, delete. De-lete any messages you have already taken action on and completed,including any messages:

• You have read and have no further interest in.• You have responded to.• You don’t need to read.

Managing E-Mail 141

Do It

When you are handling items in your inbox during one of the desig-nated times, respond right away to any messages that you can.Think of the Nike brand slogan: ‘‘Just do it.’’ You have set aside thistime to handle your e-mail, so touch it once and answer it. Here arethe basics:

• Anything you can complete in under two minutes, just do it now.• If you are committed to doing it today and it will take more thantwo minutes, drag it to your Respond Today folder. Once you havetriaged your inbox to empty, you open this folder and beginresponding.

• If you are committed to handling the e-mail but won’t get to it todayand need a substantial amount of time to think it through beforeresponding, then drag it to your calendar, update the appointmentform, and create time for it in your calendar.

• If you are committed to responding to the e-mail but can’t becauseyou need further information from someone else before you can doit, drag it to your Waiting for Response folder.

Respond Today

As you are answering and deleting messages, you will probably comeupon one message where you think, ‘‘This must get handled today,but I need to think about it a little more,’’ or ‘‘This message mustbe answered today, and it’s going to take me five to ten minutes towrite the response.’’ Drag that e-mail into your Respond Todayfolder. You have another two to three times set aside before the dayis over to empty your inbox and respond to your e-mail messages.At first you may feel this is creating extra work—moving the mes-sage to another folder. Or you may think, ‘‘I can’t. I’ll forget thatit’s there and needs to be answered.’’ These are valid concerns whenyou are looking at the situation from your current method of operat-ing. However, with your new system of setting aside three to fourtimes each day to handle e-mails, you will have built in the time tohandle all of the messages in your Respond Today folder. And, if


you find you need more time, you can always increase the time youset aside.

Schedule a Specific Time to Answer in Your Calendar

As you are clearing out your inbox, invariably you’ll encounter ane-mail where you say to yourself, ‘‘I need to do something aboutthis but there is no way I can complete it today. As a matter of fact,I need some time to complete the request or assignment. In addi-tion, I need to pull together some materials.’’ For these types ofissues that require time for making requests, doing research, creat-ing content, or completing any series of actions, we recommendthat you schedule specific sufficient time in your calendar to com-plete the work.

Drag It to Waiting for Response

When you are handling the messages in your inbox, you will likelyrun across a message that you want to be reminded of because ittells you that:

• The desired information will be forthcoming.• Someone owes you certain information.• There is something you want to do, but need further informationfirst.

Rather than leave this message to clutter your inbox, drag it toyour Waiting for Response folder. You can use this folder in thesame way you use it to empty your capture tool, but instead ofposting a note to the folder, since this is an e-mail message, simplydrag the message into the folder. You do not need to be worriedabout forgetting these messages because reviewing this folder atleast once a day is already a part of your daily effectiveness pro-gram.

File It

If it’s something you want to save, place it in an existing file orcreate one.

Managing E-Mail 143

If it’s something you might want to save just because you neverknow if you’ll need it, but you don’t want to take the time to createa file for it, send it to your Someday folder.

Create Reference Folders

Consider, for example, the e-mail messages you receive that refer toa project you’re interested in or may be working on, but require noresponse from you. If you want to keep them, create a projectfolder. Then drag the e-mail into that folder where you know it willbe if you need to refer to it later.

File It in Your Someday Folder

Using your Someday Folder is a great way to take care of thosemessages pertaining to topics of interest, such as conferences youmay want to attend, newsletters you may want to receive, ideas,and so forth. What they all have in common is 1) you are not goingto do anything about this now, 2) it is not important enough foryou to create a separate e-mail folder for, and 3) you’re not readyto delete it entirely. You may think, ‘‘There’ll be so much informa-tion in that file, how will I ever find anything?’’ Well, you will usewhatever methods you are currently using for finding things in youroverly full inbox, such as sorting by ‘‘Date,’’ by ‘‘From,’’ or by ‘‘Sub-ject.’’ Also, try downloading the Google Desktop tool (http://desk-top.google.com). We’ve found that Google Desktop is a great way tosearch your own computer by typing in any term to find what youare looking for.There’s no need to schedule specific times in your calendar to

review the items in your Someday folder. When that somedaycomes and you need to find something, it will be waiting for youright there in the folder.

Blind Copy to the Waiting for Response Folder

Previously, we introduced the Waiting for Response folder as partof your triage process to keep messages that you are waiting for

http://desktop.google.com

http://desktop.google.com


someone to respond to or waiting for someone to send you infor-mation about. There’s another great way to use this folder. Whenyou are sending a message to someone requesting they do some-thing for you, blind copy yourself on the message, and when it hitsyour inbox, drag that message into this folder. The Bcc designationdoesn’t always appear automatically on all e-mail forms, so youhave to go through a few steps to insert your name to receive ablind copy. First, select ‘‘Cc’’ on the e-mail message you are creatingto open the ‘‘Select Names’’ dialog box (see figure 9-5).In the Select Names dialog box, scroll until you find your name

and highlight it. Then click on ‘‘Bcc’’ at the bottom of the dialogbox. Your name should appear in the box next to ‘‘Bcc’’ (see figure9-6). Then click OK.Now your name will appear on the e-mail form (figure 9-7), but

will not appear to others who receive the e-mail.When you are creating a message and you know that you want

a response from someone, that is the time to blind copy yourself. Itdoesn’t take more than an extra couple seconds and it sets in mo-tion a process that provides you with the security of knowing that

Figure 9-5. Blind copy yourself, step 1.

Managing E-Mail 145




you have a reminder handy to see if the person got back to you.Creating a place where you can reliably be reminded that you needto receive a response from someone else has two benefits: You nolonger have to worry about forgetting, and yet you keep thethought of these e-mails out of your mind right now, when youneed to give attention to other matters.We recommend that you make checking this folder part of your

end-of-the-day routine. As you go through this folder and discoverthat many of the items may have already been handled—deletethose messages. You may find that you are okay leaving some unat-tended for another day—leave them. You may find that some ofthem haven’t been responded to and you need to take action. Inthis case, choose the appropriate action: e-mail, phone call, or stopby for a face-to-face meeting with the person.Once you’ve established a Waiting for Response folder and the

practice of checking it each day, there is another way this folder canbe useful. If you are anxious about some people getting back to youwith answers you need, why not use the Waiting for Responsefolder for another purpose: posting reminders for voice mail mes-sages as well as e-mail when you want a response? When you areleaving a voice mail message and a response is needed, you can alsopost a note to your Waiting for Response folder. Then, when youcheck this folder at the end of the day, you can see every voice mailthat you’ve left, as well as every e-mail, and you will know who hasand hasn’t responded to you. It is another load off your mind.

Achieve Freedom

Realizing that you may currently have hundreds or thousands ofmessages in your inbox, we created the concept of the Freedomfolder as a place to hold all of that old e-mail. To begin, go into yourinbox and move every message that’s more than two days old intoyour new Freedom folder. Don’t worry about moving them. Younow know exactly where they are and can get to them anytime youwant. You still have all the searching capabilities you had in yourinbox.The advantage is they are out of your inbox. We know that at

Managing E-Mail 147

first, this sounds like something way too risky to do. This is one ofthose times we say, ‘‘Just do it.’’ Remember, you haven’t ‘‘lost’’ anymessages. They are no less important; they are just in the Freedomfolder.We recommend that you schedule a few times in your calendar

this first week to review and handle the messages in your Freedomfolder. Taking this step clears the way for you to actually tackle yourinbox and manage it to zero. We promise: It works. Everyone we’veadvised and who has taken this step has told us how great they feltafter they did it. You only need to use the Freedom folder this onetime as a way to begin.It can also be useful if sometime in the future you ‘‘fall off the

wagon’’ and end up with hundreds of e-mail messages again. Simplymove all items older than two days into your Freedom folder andyou’re back in control of your inbox.

STARTING ON YOUR WAY TO AN EMPTY INBOX

So now that your folders are set up and you understand the triageprocess, begin by moving all messages older than two days intoyour Freedom folder, and then continue to triage the remainingmessages. Every time you open your inbox, your goal is to leave itempty. You will be making decisions constantly to do one of thefollowing with each message:

• Delete it.• Do it now.• Respond to it today.• Schedule a time in your calendar to answer or complete it.• Drag it to the Waiting for Response folder.• File it under Someday.• File it in another folder you create.

Before the time allotted to handle your e-mail is up, your inboxis empty. Imagine that! Although your inbox continues to amass


new messages, often at an alarming rate, you are not worried. Youare cool, calm, and collected because there are other times in yourday set aside to handle your e-mail.

Master Your E-Mail During the Day

Let’s say that the next time set aside in your calendar to emptyyour inbox is around lunchtime. The first thing you do is open yourinbox and repeat the triage process. You finish the triage processwith time to spare. When this happens, go into your Respond Todayfolder and start responding to those messages. The alarm goes off,there is no more time left; it’s time to go off to a meeting. That’sokay because you know you are going to have more time during theday set aside for handling your e-mails.You are becoming the master of your e-mails, instead of the

other way around. You are choosing how and when you will handlethem. You are touching each e-mail once; if you can handle it anddo it, delete it and move it, you do it instantly. You are only movingthe e-mails to another folder when you’ve made the choice of whenand how you are going to address them. The psychic energy you getfrom an empty inbox is worth that extra step of placing each ofthose e-mail messages into another folder.You have also chosen when you will respond to the e-mail. The

reality is that you may not presently have the time to handle it, oryou choose not to handle it at this moment, but you have desig-nated a time in the future when it can be answered. There is peaceof mind in knowing that you have a system in place that keeps youin control of what arrives in your inbox.

Clear Your Mind with an Empty Inbox

When you use the triage process to create an empty inbox, you gaina more finite view of what’s important for the day and what’s not.You have quantified what you need to get done and when you willdo it. You are ‘‘up to the minute’’ on what’s happening in your lifeand living in the moment when your inbox is cleared. It helps youstrip away the sense of overwhelm.You are in control of your day and your week because you are

emptying your inbox. It’s that basic.

10

REDUCING E-MAILVOLUME

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is thesignificance of a clean desk?

—DR. LAURENCE J. PETER

You can do a number of things to reduce the amount of e-mailyou receive:

• Unsubscribe.• Create a delete rule.• Create rules for projects and people.• Tell people you’re making changes in your e-mail practices.

Taking the time to diminish the amount of incoming e-mail willhave an immediate payoff. Try some of these methods to reducethe size of your inbox.

TIP 1: UNSUBSCRIBE

When you see an e-mail message in your inbox that you don’t wantto read or keep, take the thirty seconds it takes to unsubscribe. If


you can’t take those thirty seconds, create an ‘‘unsubscribe’’ folderand drag the message to that folder.Then, once a month, set up a recurring 30-minute appointment

to unsubscribe to all of the messages sitting in the ‘‘Unsubscribe’’folder.

TIP 2: CREATE A DELETE RULE

For the other messages that you can’t unsubscribe to easily and thatkeep coming, create an e-mail rule to automatically delete them.You can create a rule so that anytime you get an e-mail from ‘‘JohnDoe,’’ that e-mail is automatically sent to your deleted messagesfolder.It’s not uncommon to receive information about products that

you were once interested in or ordered online two years ago, butaren’t anymore. These messages keep coming, and you can’t unsub-scribe because you no longer have the login information you needto unsubscribe. Don’t waste any more time; create a rule. Send themessage directly to your deleted items folder.Let’s create a delete rule for John Doe, someone who used to

work with you but has moved on and keeps sending out e-mailblasts to a distribution list that has your name on it. He didn’trespond to your request to delete your name. For this rule, we aregoing to instruct Microsoft Outlook to delete all e-mail comingfrom John Doe by placing it in the Delete folder.First, make sure you have a contact record for the person whose

messages you want to send directly to the Delete folder. If you don’tknow how to create a contact record, you can use the instructionsMicrosoft Outlook provides in the Help option.Next, in the Microsoft Outlook toolbar, click on Tools to bring

up a drop-down menu (as shown in figure 10-1). Click on ‘‘Rulesand Alerts’’ to open the Rules and Alerts dialog box (figure 10-2).To create a rule for John Doe, click on the New Rule tab.Clicking on the New Rule tab brings up the Rules Wizard dia-

log box. In the top section of this box labeled Step 1: Select a

Reducing E-Mail Volume 151

Figure 10-1. Creating a delete rule, step 1.

Figure 10-2. Creating a delete rule, step 2.

template, the first line in bold is ‘‘Stay Organized.’’ Just below it,select ‘‘Move messages from someone to this folder’’ (see figure10-3).In the Rules Wizard dialog box, under the section labeled Step

2: Edit the rule description (click an underlined value), click on‘‘people or distribution list.’’ This action brings up the Rule Addressdialog box. Enter the name you are creating the delete rule for—‘‘John Doe,’’ in our example. As you type, you’ll see your contact list


Figure 10-3. Creating a delete rule to move messages to a folder.

and the name highlighted and you can select the name from youraddress book, then click OK (see figure 10-4).Selecting the name brings up the Rules Wizard dialog box once

again. Only now, in the lower half of the dialog box, in the sectionlabeled Step 2: Edit the rule description, you will see that the nameJohn Doe and his e-mail address have replaced the ‘‘people or distri-bution list’’ selection. Just below, click on ‘‘specified’’ folder (seefigure 10-5). This action brings up your Personal Folder List. High-light ‘‘Deleted Items’’ and click OK (figure 10-6).There are a few more steps to confirm the rule settings. When

you click OK, the Rules Wizard menu reappears. Clicking on ‘‘Next’’brings up a list of options in the top section of the dialog box (titledStep 1: Select a template). Make sure that the box next to ‘‘Movemessages from someone to a folder’’ is checked and select it if it isnot (see figure 10-7). Then click ‘‘Next.’’Clicking on ‘‘Next’’ brings a new list of options in the Rules

Wizard menu under Step 1: Select condition(s). Make sure that thebox next to ‘‘from people or distribution list’’ is checked (see figure10-8) and select it if it is not. Then click ‘‘Next.’’


Figure 10-4. Creating a delete rule by selecting names

from your contact list.

Figure 10-5. Creating a delete rule by specifying an

e-mail address and folder.


Figure 10-6. Confirming the rule settings, step 1.

Figure 10-7. Confirming the rule settings, step 2.


Figure 10-8. Confirming the rule settings by selecting the conditions.

Once you click ‘‘Next,’’ the next confirmation screen (figure 10-9) will show Step 1: Select action(s). Make sure ‘‘move to specifiedfolder’’ is checked. Then select ‘‘Next.’’The next Rules Wizard screen (figure 10-10) asks about en-

cryption. There is no need for any encryption, so click ‘‘Next.’’Next, the Rules Wizard lets you specify a name for the rule (see

figure 10-11). The name and e-mail address you initially selectedfor this rule should appear in the selection box. If you want a differ-ent name for your rule, type it in now. Also, make sure the box ischecked to ‘‘Turn on the rule.’’ Click ‘‘Finish’’ and the rule goes intoeffect.You now have a rule to ensure that messages from Joe Doe go

directly to your Delete folder. Microsoft Outlook Help has instruc-tions for how you can copy a rule and then modify it with othere-mail addresses that you want to send directly to your Deletefolder, which simplifies the process of creating the rule. You canalso copy a rule and then modify it for moving messages from yourinbox to a specific folder. This feature is particularly useful for:

• Groups you belong to (sending all their messages to one folder)• Distribution lists you are on (sending all of these messages to onefolder)


Figure 10-9. Confirming the rule settings by selecting an action.

Figure 10-10. Selecting “no encryption” for the rule settings.


Figure10-11. Specifying a name for the delete rule.

TIP 3: CREATE RULES FOR PROJECTS AND PEOPLE

For projects that you are working on, or for groups that you meetwith regularly, set up a rule in your inbox to automatically send acopy of these e-mails to the folder for that project or group. (In-structions for creating this rule are described in Appendix B.) If youdon’t need to respond to the e-mail or take any other action whenit arrives in your inbox, you can just delete it from your inbox be-cause you know it’s already copied in the appropriate project orgroup folder. This is useful for situations where you get a lot ofmessages and want to keep a record of communications from, forexample:

• Project teams• People in your work group• Customers• Your manager• Your direct reports

See how quickly the triage can go in your inbox? You are able toimmediately delete all those messages, knowing that they’ve alreadybeen appropriately stored.


TIP 4: CREATE RULES AS ALERTS FOR MESSAGESFROM CERTAIN PEOPLE

By now you are viewing your e-mail messages only three to fivetimes per day, during the times set in your calendar. But sometimesyou may be working with a client who has particular concerns thatare time critical, or you may be waiting for some important infor-mation from your spouse or daughter and you want to know it hasarrived in your inbox without having to constantly monitor youre-mails. For these situations a useful feature is to create an Alert.An alert is a specific sound for that person. The alert can be usedjust for a day or, in the case of some of your work clients, longer.Creating an alert is very similar to creating rules. Now that you

are familiar with the process of creating rules in Microsoft Outlook(as illustrated in figures 10-1 through 10-11), let’s just walk throughthe steps for creating an alert:

1. In the Outlook toolbar, select Tools. From the drop-down menu,highlight ‘‘New Rule.’’ It brings up the ‘‘Rules and Alerts’’ dialogbox.

2. Click ‘‘New Rule’’ to bring up the ‘‘Rules Wizard’’ dialog box.

3. In the dialog box, under Step 1: Select a template, go to the listitem called ‘‘Stay Up to Date’’ and click on ‘‘Play a sound when I geta message from someone.’’

4. In the Rules Wizard dialog box, under Step 2: Edit the ruledescription (click an underlined value), click on ‘‘people or distri-bution list.’’

5. Choose the person or distribution list and click ‘‘OK.’’

6. Under Step 2: Edit the rule description, this time click on ‘‘play asound.’’

7. Choose a sound and click ‘‘OK.’’

8. Continue through the rules setting sequence by clicking ‘‘Next’’ andnaming the rule, then click ‘‘Finish.’’


Figure 10-12 shows the screen you will see after setting up this rule.Notice the sound icon.

TIP 5: TELL PEOPLE YOU ARE MAKING CHANGESIN YOUR E-MAIL PRACTICES

Unless you are someone who likes to receive joke e-mails if only forthe joy of deleting them, tell people who are sending them to stopbecause, as part of the changes you are making to be more effective

Figure10-12. Creating a sound alert for an incoming message.

this year, you are striving to reduce the number of e-mails you needto process.Let people know that, unless there is something they think you

must look at, don’t send it. You can ask people to delete you fromtheir distribution lists, especially when it comes to chain letters orjokes.


If you are being automatically CC’d by someone unnecessarily,ask to be taken off of the list.

TIP 6: ASK PEOPLE TO THINK BEFOREPRESSING ‘‘REPLY TO ALL’’

Remind people who have the tendency to automatically press‘‘Reply to All’’ to ask whether the intended recipients all need toread what they’re sending. Is it going to enhance their day or arethey cluttering up someone else’s e-mail? Just because we are notpaying postage for each message going out on the Internet doesn’tmean that we are not paying a cost of some sort—we are all, everyone of us, paying with our time.

There are many tactics you can implement to reduce the volume ofe-mail you receive. Remember to unsubscribe to anything that isjust taking up psychic RAM. When you can’t unsubscribe, set up adelete rule. For frequently recurring e-mail, set up rules to handleit automatically so that you no longer need to move it into folders.Let your colleagues, coworkers, family members, and friends knowthat you are making changes in your e-mail practices and ask fortheir help. Remind those people around you who frequently use‘‘Reply to All’’ to think about whether their e-mail responses arerelevant to everyone on the list.

11

BACK ON THETRIAGE WAGON

It’s at the end of the day and there are an additional thirty unan-swered messages in your inbox and sixteen messages to answerin the Respond Today folder. There will be times when you fall be-hind in triaging your e-mail. Don’t panic. All you need to do is cre-ate a weekly stopgap time where you empty your inbox and getcaught up. This practice gives you a fresh start each week and setsyou up to be the master of your inbox rather than the victim of it.If you have e-mail messages that have been sitting in your inbox

for a week or two and you aren’t doing anything about them, youmight as well move them to your Someday folder. That way if youneed them, you can easily find them there. It’s not bogging youdown—you are making a choice about how you are handling it.Remember, when you put e-mail in the Someday folder, you are

not sending it to Siberia. You still have access to those messageswhenever you like. Keep your inbox empty. Clean out your RespondToday folder every day. Make it a practice.It’s like housework. Sometimes you spit-shine the floor and it’s

gorgeous—the floor gleams when the sun shines in on it and youdemand everyone be careful about not wearing shoes in the house.And then life hits. Milk spills. The dog tracks mud in and you’ve gotto clean it again. But you don’t have the time at the moment totackle it with a spit-shine, so for now just sweeping will do. Eventu-ally, however, the floor will get so dirty that you’ll surrender andsay, ‘‘That’s enough already. I’m scrubbing the floor again.’’


It’s not that different with your e-mail. It’s maintenance. Hav-ing a set routine for handling your e-mail messages will keep youon track.

E-MAIL IS ONLY ONE COMMUNICATION VEHICLE

There are many communication vehicles at our disposal, includingface-to-face communication, the telephone, leaving voice mail mes-sages, sending snail or express mail, text messaging, instant mes-saging (IM), tweeting, and faxing. And then there is e-mail, whichis often the vehicle of choice because it is quick, easy, and free.It has become the preferred method of communication for manypeople.E-mail is great for transactional correspondence, but there are

times when the message you are sending is too critical or sensitiveto be sent via e-mail. It breaks down when you want to conveyemotion or when the message is more complex. When you need toreply to a message and ask for clarification, it is okay if you haveone question. More than one and you should ask whether a phonecall would be more expedient. When a message becomes more com-plex and nuanced, the human voice becomes the most effective ve-hicle to transmit both its emotional meaning and its content.Talking an issue through is much faster than e-mailing, even if youuse IM, because there is so much information you hear in the tonal-ity of the voice that can’t be conveyed with text.An e-mail sent does not equal a communication received. There

is a difference between sending a message and the act of communi-cating. Often we think we’ve communicated, but all we’ve done iswritten and distributed electronic data. You’ve communicated onlywhen you have checked in with the receiver(s) of the message andconfirmed that you both have the same understanding of the mes-sage.

Back on the Triage Wagon 163

Opportunities for Miscommunication

Psychologists Justin Kruger and Nicholas Epley of the Universityof Chicago have published research that helps explain why theseelectronic misunderstandings occur so frequently.1 They find thatwhen people send e-mail, they overestimate both their ability toconvey their intended tone—be it sarcastic, serious, or funny—aswell as their ability to correctly interpret the tone of messages thatothers send to them.The reason for this communication disconnect, the researchers

find, is egocentrism—the well-established social psychological phe-nomenon whereby people have a difficult time detaching them-selves from their own perspectives and understanding how otherpeople will interpret them. And as e-mail has become more preva-lent, Epley says, the opportunities for misunderstanding have in-creased. ‘‘Of course there’s nothing new about text-basedcommunication; people have been writing letters for centuries,’’ heexplains. ‘‘But what’s different in this medium is . . . the ease withwhich we can fire things back and forth. It makes text-based com-munication seem more informal and more like face-to-face commu-nication than it is.’’Despite this ease, though, e-mail can have some serious disad-

vantages. In their study, Kruger and Epley found that people arebetter at communicating and interpreting tone in vocal messagesthan in text-based ones. ‘‘I think people do have some intuition,abstractly, about the limits of e-mail,’’ Epley says. ‘‘But I don’t thinkthat in specific instances people realize that a particular message isunclear.’’Given these findings, then, what’s the average e-mailer to do?

Well, perhaps pick up the phone. ‘‘E-mail is fine if you just wantto communicate content, but not any emotional material,’’ Epleyexplains.

Think About the Receiver

Just as we encourage you to ask others to be mindful of their e-mailpractices, you need to think about the receiver before you send an


e-mail message. Every time you click ‘‘Reply to All,’’ you are addingto the volume of other people’s inboxes. Every time you get thatgreat inspirational quote, or that joke that had you laughing yoursocks off, and you sent it out, you are cluttering up someone else’se-mail. Think before sending.

CURBING THE SENSE OF BEING OVERWHELMED

The most common and vocal complaint we hear around productiv-ity and effectiveness is ‘‘I’m being overwhelmed by my e-mail.’’ Cli-ent after client, workshop after workshop, it is the biggest issuethat people face. E-mail contributes to their sense of being over-whelmed.We are not saying you will never feel overwhelmed again be-

cause your inbox is empty. We’re saying that reducing the numberof e-mails that have taken permanent residency in your inbox willeliminate a significant source of stress. Handle your e-mail and youwill start developing the muscle that it takes to handle the rest ofyour life.Every day when you look at your empty inbox, you are going to

say to yourself, ‘‘I did it. I conquered the e-mail tyrant.’’ And you’llfeel energized, which is how you need to feel if you want to have arich, rewarding, fulfilling, satisfying life. The next chapter will giveyou a similar process for handling social media.

12

SOCIAL MEDIA ISHERE TO STAY

Is social media a fad or the biggest shift since the IndustrialRevolution?

—ERIK QUALMAN

Social media is a global phenomenon. The usage statistics arestaggering. According to Nielsen Online’s 2009 analysis of so-cial media marketing, social networks and blogs beat other onlineactivity, including personal e-mail, to become the most popular on-line activity.1

Using social media is a new way of communicating that canfoster community and collaboration. It is literally six degrees ofseparation in action. You can make connections with new profes-sionals, old colleagues, suppliers, and customers in minutes andnever have to leave the comfort of your home or workplace to doso. There are numerous social media outlets that are revolutionizingthe way we conduct our personal and business lives. The three mostpopular social media destinations are Facebook, LinkedIn, andTwitter.Although social media offers huge advantages to the way we

live and work, a potential adverse side effect is that a significantnumber of hours can be whittled away engaging in these sites. This


chapter is about how to manage the social media that you use nowor may use in the future. It is not our intent to describe the benefitsof one form of social media over another. Rather, we want to out-line a process to manage your time using these social media sites sothat they add value to your life and do not become a distraction orburden.

WHAT CURRENT SITES OFFER

Let’s begin by exploring what each of the most popular social mediasites have to offer. Here is a cursory overview.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is currently the largest business andprofessional network where people exchange information andideas. More than 50 million professionals worldwide use LinkedInto find and introduce themselves to potential clients, service pro-viders, and subject matter experts who come recommended; to findbusiness opportunities; to discover inside connections that can helpland a job; and to get advice from trusted professionals.

Facebook

With more than 400 million users, Facebook (www.facebook.com)is arguably the largest social network as of this writing. Originallydesigned as a network for college students, Facebook is now usedby individuals, businesses, and families around the world to stayconnected with people in their lives. Facebook’s mission is to ‘‘givepeople the power to share and make the world more open and con-nected.’’ People use Facebook every day to upload an unlimitednumber of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about thepeople they meet. Facebook has been banned by some employersto discourage their employees from wasting time. Nevertheless, its

www.linkedin.com

www.facebook.com

Social Media Is Here to Stay 167

growth continues and its fastest-growing user segment is 35-year-olds and older.

Twitter

Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a social networking and microbloggingservice that allows you to answer the question ‘‘What are youdoing?’’ with short text messages called ‘‘tweets.’’ You sent tweetsto your friends, or ‘‘followers,’’ via mobile texting, IM, or the Web.Twitter was designed to let people ‘‘share and discover what’s hap-pening right now, anywhere in the world.’’ The short format of thetweet (140 characters in length) is a defining characteristic of theservice, allowing informal collaboration and quick informationsharing that provides relief from rising e-mail and IM fatigue. Youcan share information with people you wouldn’t normally exchangee-mail or IM messages with, opening up your circle of contacts toan ever-growing community of like-minded people.These technologies are becoming a mainstay in business. Social

media outlets are used to research information about prospects be-fore engaging with them, to survey customers to see how we canserve them better, to find new employees, and to stay on top ofmarketplace trends. Personal lives are also benefiting. Social mediahas made it much easier to get reacquainted with people from ourpast and to keep in contact with new friends. In fact, one out ofeight couples married in the United States in 2008 met online.2

MANAGING OUR SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

Although these social media outlets offer many benefits, they canalso consume enormous amounts of time. It takes time to answerinvitations and questions from colleagues on LinkedIn, and to an-swer friends and post and update your pages in Facebook, and toadd followers and answer direct tweets on Twitter. Just as e-mail

www.twitter.com


can be an all-consuming function that you must learn how to man-age (as covered in chapter 9), it is equally important to becomestrategic about your social media usage so that you can benefit fromits many advantages. When it comes to effectively managing socialmedia, the key decisions are:

• Why you are using it?• What do you want to accomplish?• How important is it?• How much time are you willing to devote?

Step 1: Determine Why and How You Are Using Social Media

Use table 12-1 to identify why you use social media and then whichsites you frequent. As an example, a common business reason forusing social media is to learn more about prospects. Let’s say thatyou currently use both Facebook and LinkedIn to routinely learnmore about possible clients, so place an X in the boxes to the rightof that line in the table. You can customize this chart, adding otheruses and other sites, to reflect you own preferences.

Step 2: Determine What You Want to Accomplish

Now that we know how and why you are using these various ser-vices, let’s look at what you want to accomplish by using them. Just

Table 12-1. Why and how you are using social media.

REASONS FOR OTHER OTHER OTHERUSING SOCIAL MEDIA FACEBOOK LINKEDIN TWITTER #1 #2 #3

Learn about prospects X X

Research customers

Find new employees

Stay on top of trends

Find my next job

Promote my businesses

Dating

Be in touch with siblings


because we can use them for these purposes doesn’t mean we needto use them or should use them. You can get from New York to LosAngeles by car, train, plane, taxi, boat, or even horseback. Depend-ing on what you are expecting to accomplish, some are much betterchoices than others.Let’s take our first example:

Question: What do I intend to accomplish by learning moreabout prospects?

Answer: I want to be better prepared before I speak with some-one from one of my prospect companies, and I’d like toknow more about the person I am about to call besides sim-ply his position at his company. I’m also interested in ac-quaintances, experiences, and interests we may have incommon.

Review your reasons for using social media that you wrote downin table 12-1 and ask yourself the question, ‘‘What do I intend toaccomplish by engaging in this medium?’’ The answer to the ques-tion will give you insights as to whether the value you are receivingis equal to or greater than the time you are investing in it.

Step 3: Determine Your Priorities

As with everything else we want to accomplish in life, it also comesdown to how great a priority it is for us and how much time we arewilling to devote to it per day, week, or month. That means youhave to determine social media’s importance to your goals and an-nual accomplishments. Use table 12-2 to identify how timely andimportant your reasons for using social media are. You may findinstances when high-importance items may not be a priority whenit comes to timeliness. Choosing your priorities based on their time-liness helps in accomplishing these items first.

Step 4: Allocate Time

Just as we have a system for handling our e-mail messages, settingaside three to five times each day to read and handle our messages,


Table 12-2. Determining priorities.

REASONS FOR USINGSOCIAL MEDIA HIGH IMPORTANCE IMPORTANT

NOT NOTTIMELY TIMELY TIMELY TIMELY NOT IMPORTANT

Learn about prospects

Check out our customers

Find new employees

Stay on top of trends

Find our next job opportunity

Promote our businesses

Dating

Be in touch with siblings

and a triage system for getting to the highest priority messagesfirst, we need one for handling social media.We recommend your social media handling system include:

• A specific number of times you set aside per day and per week• Rules set up in Microsoft Outlook (or another e-mail and calendarprogram) to keep incoming social media communications out ofyour already overtaxed inbox

• A triage process that ensures you get to the highest-priority itemsfirst

To manage this process, we need to create Microsoft Outlook rulesto either:

• Move all items from the social media service to an Outlook folderwith a shortcut.

• Copy all items from this service to an Outlook folder with a shortcutdepending on their importance and timeliness.

High Importance and Timely

Times should be scheduled on a routine basis to ‘‘scan for and re-spond to’’ High Importance and Timely messages. An example: If


LinkedIn and Facebook both have high importance (or important)and timely messages, set an appointment for perhaps fifteen min-utes each day to:

1. Scan both folders for incoming messages.

2. Respond to the high importance and timely messages.

High Importance or Important, but Not Timely

Times should be scheduled on a routine basis to triage the messagesin these folders, perhaps thirty minutes twice a week, dependingon your volume, to:

1. Respond to the high importance and important messages.

2. Delete, respond to, or file the remaining messages.

3. Leave your incoming folder empty.

Figure 12-1 is an example of a scheduling system, in a weekly view.

Figure 12-1. Scheduling social media time.


Making social media time a scheduled task in your calendardoesn’t mean that you may not want to go into these folders in theevenings or on the weekends or when you need a break at othertimes. It just means that you can count on triaging these folders toempty them, in our example, at least twice a week. We are recom-mending these practices as a minimalist approach. Your actualusage depends on how much time you are willing to allocate to thiseffort.For each social media service you use, you need two folders and

shortcuts to these folders. As an example, for your Facebook ac-count, you would create Facebook Incoming and Facebook Somedayfolders. In the same way you set up shortcuts for managing youre-mail, you can set up groups for all your different Social MediaIncoming and Someday messages and then insert the shortcuts toyour new folders below them. Figures 12-2 and 12-3 show how yourOutlook shortcuts will look after adding these groups.

Figure 12-2. Setting up social media incoming folders.

Each day when the reminder goes off on your calendar indicat-ing it’s time to scan your social media incoming folders, you simplyclick over to your shortcuts and open the folders. To make this taskeven more streamlined, we suggest you check to see if your foldersare set up to indicate how many unread items they contain, rather


Figure 12-3. Setting up social media Someday folders.

than how many total items they contain. The number will be high-lighted in blue to the right of the shortcut name. This shortcut willpoint you to the folders you need to scan during this brief periodof time.To create this setup, go to your Shortcut view and click on one

of your new folders. Click on properties. It brings up the menushown in figure 12-4.Social media is here to stay. Choosing why we use it and what

we want to achieve with it allows us to maximize the benefits thatthese technologies have to offer. It’s wonderful to hear fromfriends, family members, and coworkers, and see their videos andview their photos and get updates on what they are up to. Thedownside of social media is that it can be very time-consuming.Putting systems and structures in place helps manage our usage andfocus our time on what’s most important.At this point we’ve covered every aspect of how to organize

your work and life to be more effective and get things done. You’velearned how to keep your mind free from the more mundane tasksso that you can focus on those tasks and events that are most im-portant to you. You’ve also learned scheduling practices that allowyou to design your days with intention and purpose, and create


Figure 12-4. Setting your incoming folder for new messages.

your life in a satisfying, fulfilling, and rewarding manner. Lastly,you learned how to triage your way to an empty inbox and manageyour social media usage.As you begin implementing this system, it’s likely that you will

encounter times when you are unable to keep some of these prac-tices in place. When we are learning something new, it’s normalthat there will be setbacks along the way. Chapter 13 introducestips and exercises on how to recover when these inevitable setbacksoccur.

13

RELAUNCHING YOURCREATED LIFE

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what youcould. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget themas soon as you can. Tomorrow is new day. You shall begin itserenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with yourold nonsense.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

This chapter is designed to help you get in touch with theresources available to you when you revert to old habits. Youwill learn to put yourself back in commission and back on the pathof designing your days and creating your life. Perhaps you wereimmersed in meeting a project deadline or you returned from anillness, vacation, or other absence only to find your inbox over-loaded, your work projects piling up, and your home routine dis-rupted. When you are feeling demotivated, sluggish, or submergedin a sense of being overwhelmed, the simple techniques in thischapter can help you to favorably change your state of being to astate of doing.The intention is for you to have a sit-down with yourself, in a

gentle but intentional way, to create action again in your life. In-stead of thinking, ‘‘I’ll never be able to catch up; I’ll never be able to


start again,’’ remember to open this chapter for inspiration andwe’ll take you through a step-by-step process for reentry. The goalof relaunching your productivity is to be reengaged, recommitted,and revitalized. Restart your engines!A massage therapist once told us that people have lost touch

with the healing power that we all have, especially the healingpower of our hands. Whenever we stub a toe, scrape a knee, orbump our head, our first response is to put our hand over the placethat hurts. For prehistoric humans, the hand was a powerful force;it was the first place to go for healing. The resources you need toheal yourself, to change yourself from disease back to ease, are al-ready built into you (notice how, if you scrape a knee, it heals on itsown without any direction from you). This chapter gives you accessto your healing power, whenever you need it, to assist you in gettingback on track.

BECOMING A SLUG

Is this scenario familiar? You set aside the time to do somethingthat you’ve said is important to do and then you find yourself doinganything but that. You have nothing else planned, nothing that iscompeting for your time. You said that you would work on themonthly report and you can’t even begin it. You browse the Web,check your e-mail, shuffle papers on your desk—you do anythingbesides beginning the report.This is what we call becoming a slug. When you become a slug,

you are alert but you find yourself doing everything you can toavoid the thing you have set out to accomplish. You probably havefound yourself playing the Five More Minutes game. For example,you are lying on the couch, negotiating with yourself: ‘‘In five moreminutes, I’ll turn off the television and get to work.’’ After fiveminutes elapse, you bargain once more: ‘‘In the next five minutesI’ll begin for sure.’’ More than thirty minutes later, you are stillwatching television. All the while, your stomach is churning becauseyou know that you are not using your time the way you said you

Relaunching Your Created Life 177

would. You’ve set aside the time to accomplish a task and yet hereyou are, squandering it.It is something that we all do. Recognize it as a sign that per-

haps something isn’t working for you. Do you need a break? Areyou worried or afraid of something? When you become a slug, it isoften a way of dealing with stress. It is your body’s way of shuttingdown for a little while. This is different from being exhausted,where you want to work on something but can’t because of fatigue.Your eyes are closing and you can’t keep them open another minute.In this instance, you need to stop and rest. Being a slug is a strategythat’s used to avoid tasks we simply would rather not do.

WHO AM I?

An unknown author once wrote a riddle:

I am your constant companion; I am your greatest helper or heavi-est burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. Iam completely at your command. Half the things you do youmight just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do themquickly and correctly. I am easily managed—you must merely befirm with me. Show me exactly how you want something doneand after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.Who am I? I am habit.

A habit is merely a familiar way of responding to a certain stim-ulus over and over again. When we respond to a task that makes usuncomfortable by becoming a slug, that is a habit. The good newsis that habits can be changed because they are behaviorally driven,and as the previous quote suggests, habits can be ‘‘easily managed—you must merely be firm.’’Once we have identified that our becoming a slug is a habit and

that we are addicted to it, the question then becomes, how do wedetoxify from that habit? How do we recondition our responses sothat we don’t become a slug every time we have to complete a taskthat we don’t want to do?


SIX HABITS THAT KEEP US STUCK

So now you have the tools. You have created your life. You are livinginto it day by day, week by week, month by month. On your journeyto becoming accountable to yourself by designing your days andcreating your life, you are going to encounter obstacles, setbacks,and habits that can be difficult to change. When you catch yourselfstarting down the slippery slope of losing control of your calendarand your life, look at the habitual behaviors that are taking over.Let’s examine some of the roadblocks you may run into:

• Forgetting to take one bite at a time• Trying to do too much too quickly• Micromanaging the process• Allowing the project to become an octopus• Looking for outside motivation• Feeling guilty about what you don’t do

Take a look at this list. See if you recognize your habitual wayor ways of getting stuck. Most of us have a couple of them. Onceyou are aware of them, you are more likely to avoid the traps.

Habit 1: Forgetting to Take One Bite at a Time

You may have heard the joke, ‘‘How do you eat an elephant?’’ An-swer: ‘‘One bite at a time.’’ Now, if you are like most people you’venever eaten an elephant nor do you intend to. But it’s a helpfulanecdote. At the beginning of large projects, or even not-so-largeprojects, schedule the time to make your list of everything thatneeds to be done. On your list include the task of scheduling thetime to complete or delegate each item.When you are stuck and don’t know where to begin, the key is

to create momentum and take a little bite. Consult your list andchoose one item that you find less daunting and complete it. Startnow or schedule a specific time to begin.Don’t let the size of the project, the emotion of your day (or

hour), or the condition of the office or the world be the determining


factors in moving this project to completion. Eat the elephant onebite at a time.

Habit 2: Trying to Do Too Much Too Quickly

Sometimes, instead of finding yourself stuck on where to begin, yousee yourself stretched and scattered in many directions. Your energyis fragmented and your progress is halted.This habit can be hard to spot because you are running so fast

you don’t have time to catch yourself at it. When you find yourselftrying to do too much too quickly, stop, breathe, and break downyour task into manageable steps. Schedule the time to accomplisheach step instead of trying to complete the entire project at once.As human beings, our minds work much faster than our hands

and our mouths. We can always come up with more things to do,say, or accomplish than there is time to complete them. We need toremind ourselves that we are indeed human, and that we havetwenty-four hours a day, every day, to accomplish what we say ismost important. Making sure that we’ve blocked time in our calen-dar for our routines and our appointments provides us with a morerealistic view of how much time we actually have to work on tasksand projects. Letting the calendar be our guide keeps us groundedin this reality.

Habit 3: Micromanaging the Process

It is amazing how the gestation process is so passive. The motherdoes not have to orchestrate the process with a command such as,‘‘Okay, cells, listen! Arm cell connect to the elbow cell!’’ The motheris a vessel, and the baby developing inside her is created withoutmuch direct input from the mother. She is merely the environmentthe baby needs to create itself.We are struck by how this is true in so much of life. People have

a tendency of wanting to force things. You believe you have to makethem happen. However, in so many cases, all you need to do isstate the intention or be clear about the outcome you want to seeaccomplished, and then let things take care of themselves.


Be open to the path to the results instead of managing everynook and cranny of how you get there; don’t choke the creativityout of yourself. When you stop micromanaging the process andallow things to happen, the path to your goals will open wide. It’samazing what new ideas and resources ‘‘show up.’’ The results canthen be much more powerful and more effective.

Habit 4: Allowing the Project to Become an Octopus

How many times do you look at what needs to be done for a largeproject or an event and say, ‘‘Ugh, this thing has grown eight newarms and I can’t get it all done. I don’t know how to contain it.’’That should sound the alarm that it’s time to get clear about

the desired outcomes of the project. It’s time to choose what is inand out of the scope of this project. This may include renegotiatingexpectations with the stakeholders involved.

Habit 5: Looking for Outside Motivation

People often say, ‘‘I don’t feel motivated. This project, team, and soon, doesn’t do anything for me anymore. I want a pill that will makeme want to complete my task.’’ Nothing outside of you can makeyou want to do something, unless of course someone is threateningyou with bodily harm. We think, ‘‘If I could only find that thing tokeep me going, then I’d be all right.’’ There’s no need to look outsideof yourself. You are all you’ve got. And here’s the good news: That’sall you need.Motivation from the outside is short-lived. Powerful motivation

comes from within. It is being clear about what is most importantto you. It’s asking yourself ‘‘Why am I doing this task in the firstplace?’’ There are two main reasons why we do or don’t dothings—to seek pleasure or to avoid pain. What pain does this taskavoid? Or what benefit will the completion of this task provide? Seeif you can pinpoint the difference that doing it will make.When you find yourself looking for motivation from outside,

stop. Take the time to make the connection between the benefityou will accrue from completing the task to the task itself.


Habit 6: Feeling Guilty About What We Don’t Do

After squandering time by being a slug, we are invariably late forsomething else because we still have to complete the tasks we’vedelayed doing. At this point, we may punish ourselves: ‘‘You putyourself into this predicament. You wasted that time, so you de-serve to have to work late tonight. It’s your fault.’’There is a better way than punishing yourself. Self-degradation

saps the energy and strength you need to find creative solutionsand to get unstuck.Guilt is self-indulgent. If you feel guilty about something, it

allows you to feel sorry for yourself. Guilt helps you mask beingresponsible. ‘‘If I feel guilty and bad enough about it,’’ you tell your-self, ‘‘then they’ll feel sorry for me and lessen or change their expec-tations of me in some way. Maybe they’ll even let me off the hookfor doing what I said I would do.’’We believe that if we feel guilty and, especially, if we let every-

body know how guilty we feel, it will somehow make everythingbetter. It won’t. Guilt is another honorable distraction. You mighteven become so consumed with the guilt that now you are unableto produce what you wanted to accomplish.Berating yourself never makes it easier to do what you’ve said

you want to do. Be positive and remind yourself that at any timeyou can choose something else. Although it may not always be easyto make that choice, it is always that simple.

FIVE STEPS TO JUMP-START YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

When our actions aren’t aligned with our intentions, then a break-down in our productivity occurs. The philosopher Martin Buber saidit best: ‘‘The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow men isthat I do not say what I mean and that I do not do what I say.’’1

Here are five steps you can use when you find yourself mis-aligned and in conflict with yourself, such that you are saying onething and yet doing something altogether different.


• Notice what you are doing without judgment.• Name your feeling.• Breathe.• Know that you have a choice.• Make a two-minute choice.

Step 1: Notice What You Are Doing Without Judgment

One of our favorite quotes says, ‘‘The range of what we think anddo is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to noticethat we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until wenotice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.’’2

Here is how you learn to observe yourself without judgment.The first sign of being in conflict with what you should be doing iswhen you feel the ‘‘warring.’’ For most people, the warring is a phys-ical sensation in the body. It is an acknowledgment that you aren’tdoing what you said you would do. It begins in the pit of yourstomach; you feel nervousness and uneasiness. Then it travels tothe palms of your hands, which become sweaty. At last, the strugglemoves to your face, as you furrow your brow.Then, after the warring comes the ‘‘thrashing.’’ You tell yourself,

‘‘You’re doing it again! What’s wrong with you? How come you can’tdo what you say you’re going to do? Look at you. You’ve squandereda half hour. You could have been done already!’’ Then you are soworn out by the thrashing that it fuels your case and becomes thereason you can’t do it.Be aware of how long it takes you to notice your behavior. It

may take thirty or forty-five minutes before you realize that thewar is raging: ‘‘Oh, yeah, that’s right; I’m supposed to notice whenI’m avoiding my task.’’ The next time, your reaction time will befaster. The goal is to shorten the time it takes to notice your habit,thinking, or behavior. As soon as you recognize yours, you have achance to make a choice.

Step 2: Name Your Feeling

Identify the feeling you are having right now. Pick two or three ofthe following words to describe what you are feeling: angry, sad,


scared, glad, happy, optimistic, hopeful, overwhelmed, frustrated,put-upon, controlled, resentful, proud, unappreciated, worthy, un-worthy, incompetent, irritated, strong, impatient, lonely, isolated,defeated.Somebody once said that you can have your feelings but you

don’t have to be your feelings. You can have the feeling of beingangry but you don’t have to be angry. You can have the feeling ofbeing unworthy but you don’t have to be unworthy.Next, reflect on your feeling in relation to the task you are

doing. Does your feeling have anything to do with the task? Onceyou have separated your feeling from the task at hand, you canchoose again. Let’s say you name your feeling, and you are angry.Now that you know how you are feeling, you can decide whetheryou are committed to completing the task you set out to accomplishor whether you are committed to being angry. If you are committedto being angry, be angry. You have a choice.Naming your feelings is a powerful act. When you name some-

thing, you neutralize the impact that it has on you. Feelings arenothing more than feelings. Not to minimize it, but sometimeswhen we can name and reflect on a feeling, it can create enoughdistance to allow us some objectivity and some flexibility, and ourflexibility can get us back into action.

Step 3: Breathe

Breathing exercises are another way to bring yourself back to bal-ance. A favorite yoga exercise is called the Breath of Joy. It is aquick and refreshing breathing exercise that instantly lifts yourspirits and clears your mind of negative thoughts and tension. Itoxygenates your brain and rejuvenates your body.Here’s how it works: The Breath of Joy is three inhalations

taken with the arms swinging, shoulder height, forward, and thenfully outstretched to the side, then extended above your head, andfinishing with the arms swinging downward with the body in aslight forward crouching position. Inhale one-third of your capacitywith each swing of the arms forward, to the side, and up. Then,


when you drop your arms down as you bend forward at the hipsand knees, exhale.As you perform the Breath of Joy, ensure that you are taking

one continuous breath in three parts, rather than three separatebreathes. Exhale loudly—with a ‘‘Ha!’’—when your arms are swing-ing downward and you are bending at the hips and knees, to allowthe tension to escape from the body. Go at your own pace and ifyou feel dizzy, stop and sit down.Give it a try. To begin, stand with your feet hip-width apart,

knees slightly bent and arms hanging loosely by your sides. Makesure that you have enough room to swing your arms in any direc-tion and not hit anything. Now, follow this sequence:

• Inhale, lifting your arms so they are outstretched and pointingforward, at shoulder height.

• Inhale again, and vigorously swing your arms out to your sides,shoulder height.

• Inhale once more, quickly swinging your arms up over your head.• Bend over at the hips and let your arms swing down to hang looselyfrom your shoulders and exhale with a loud ‘‘Ha!’’

Repeat the exercise several times. Remember, it is one continu-ous breath in three parts. Each swing of the arms is to be donevigorously. (For a video demonstration, go to: http://yogayak.com/2009/06/24/breath-of-joy-pranayama.)

Step 4: Know That You Have a Choice

The great thing about having choices is that as long as you arebreathing, you have an endless supply of them. They don’t expireor evaporate.So you might say to yourself, ‘‘Oh, look, I noticed that I’m play-

ing this little game with myself again, where I thrash myself for notworking. I noticed it, and now I can make other choices.’’ You mightmake a choice to continue doing what you are currently doing, takeon the task you were avoiding, or choose something else altogether.

http://yogayak.com/2009/06/24/breath-of-joy-pranayama

http://yogayak.com/2009/06/24/breath-of-joy-pranayama


By choosing, you are back in control, rather than your habit control-ling you. It’s not only about reaching your goals; it’s about livingthe life you create, including playing spider solitaire, if that strikesyour fancy.

Step 5: Make a Two-Minute Choice

If you are still not ready to tackle your task, make a choice that youcan live with for the next two minutes. Given the tender state thatyou are in at this moment, it is often best to make an initial choicethat expires quickly. The goal of this short-term choice is to createmovement that will get you unstuck.For example, if you are resisting getting up from watching tele-

vision to check your e-mail, tell yourself, ‘‘For two minutes, I’mgoing to choose to get up, sit at my desk, and answer my e-mail andafter the two minutes, I can stop.’’ You can even set a timer. By thetime the timer goes off or the two minutes have expired, you havetaken the action to overcome the habit and are back in control,having made a choice again.

OVERCOMING FEAR

There’s a woman whose young son was afraid of monsters. Therewere lots of tree branches that grew outside his bedroom window,and, when the moonlight shone into his room at night, it wouldcast gnarled and twisted shadows on the floor. He was terrified tosleep because he knew that these shadows were dangerous mon-sters. One day, the boy’s mother bought him a little spray bottlecommonly used for houseplants and wrote ‘‘Monster Spray’’ in bigletters across it. She gave him the bottle and practiced spraying themonsters with him. This simple little solution put him in controland gave him the power to spray the monsters away.


This chapter is your bottle of Monster Spray. Whenever youfind yourself trapped by monsters (fear, procrastination, feeling in-adequate), these techniques can help you get back to what you wantto be doing. Using these tools, you will be able to pat that littlemonster and say, ‘‘Okay, go away. I know you’ll be back again, butit’s not your time now.’’ The intent of overcoming the monster is toget you back to creating, to get you back in control, instead of hav-ing the monster run the show. Once you name your monster, youare back in power.

Use the Power of Fear

Years ago, I, Alesia, took a class on how to be a stand-up comic. Iwasn’t interested in becoming a comedienne; I wanted to learn howto bring humor into my presentations. On the last day of class, weput on a comedy show where each student performed three or fourminutes of the comedy routine they had been crafting. The audi-ence consisted of family and friends, so nobody was going to booor throw rotten tomatoes at us. Even so, I remember being terrifiedright before it was my turn to go onstage. Then, when I steppedonstage, an amazing thing happened. While I was feeling the great-est amount of fear I had ever felt, I was also experiencing a newand heightened sense of aliveness that was exhilarating. I was en-gaged and present with the audience and had fun trying some ofthe jokes that I’d been collecting for use in my presentations.Taking on things that you’re afraid to do can turn out to be an

enjoyable way to experience more of life.

Recognize That Fear Keeps Us Alive

We give fear too much power. The way to create more equilibriumin our relationship with fear is to first coax it out of the shadowsand look at it head-on, befriend it, and allow it to do what it isdesigned to do: Keep us safe, alive, and present. Fear taught ourearliest ancestors ‘‘fight or flight.’’ In the present-day, fear keeps usalive in the moment and keeps us living life.


We need to transform our relationship to fear from somethingwe deny to a source of vitality and energy. When we welcome ourfear, it can become an even fuller part of our aliveness.

Create Inertia with a Gentle Choice

Newton’s first law of motion (also known as the law of inertia) saysthat an object at rest will stay at rest, or an object in motion willstay in motion, unless acted upon by an external force. How manytimes have you lain in bed with a full bladder, but you don’t wantto get up because you’re afraid you’ll get cold, or that you’ll wakeup others, or you are afraid you won’t be able to go back to sleep?You stay in bed until your bladder screams at you and forces youinto action!How do we counteract that law of inertia? How do we stay in

action when we’ve been arrested by our fears? The first thing is toacknowledge what is going on, to admit to the fear. Once you haveacknowledged the fear, you can make some simple choices thatgently engage you in an activity. We often are not gentle enoughwith ourselves. Even a gentle action can create substantial move-ment.

Befriend Your Fears

Fear is going to be a constant companion. It is not going away. Fearis there to serve us by keeping us safe. It is what kept prehistorichumans alive and able to procreate. Most of their fears were physi-cal fears, like being afraid that a tiger might jump out and eat them.These days, with all of our modern technology, most of us are notas immediately concerned with our personal safety. So, if physicalrisk is not an issue, what is it that we are so afraid of? Now, we areafraid of ‘‘reputational’’ risk. We are afraid others won’t think weare smart or capable, or we are afraid that we won’t be able tomeasure up.We need to acknowledge that fear is a constant sidekick, and

recognize that we have more power over it than we think. We can


assert ourselves and lean into fear in a way that doesn’t createstruggle but instead creates alignment. We can ally ourselves withthe fear, acknowledging that it’s there and that it wants to protectus, but we can say, ‘‘I’m okay with this; you don’t have to protectme. I don’t need to sit here and watch TV for an hour. I know I canget up and do my taxes.’’ Once we identify that our sidekick hascome to the rescue, we can choose to tell it that we don’t need itright now.Our typical response to fear is, ‘‘What’s wrong with me? I know

I’m supposed to do this task and I’m not doing it. There must besomething wrong with me.’’ And there is nothing wrong with us.We need to say, ‘‘Wow, isn’t this interesting? I’m noticing that I’mresisting this task. This could be a clue that I’m afraid of some-thing.’’When you first sense that you are afraid of something, tell your-

self, ‘‘I’m afraid of it.’’ Then list all the things you are afraid of. Forexample: ‘‘People will say it’s not good enough,’’ ‘‘I’ll fail,’’ or ‘‘I’lldisappoint.’’ Now look at what you’ve written and ask, ‘‘So what’sthe worst that can happen if all those things come about?’’ Chancesare you won’t be able to come up with a good answer. The worst thatcan happen is that people don’t like something you did. Now thinkabout what happened in the past when people didn’t like somethingyou did. Did you die? Were you hit with a bolt of lightning? Did youcontract a terrible disease? No. Nothing life-threatening happened.You may have disappointed yourself and/or others. There may havebeen some unfavorable consequences, but, more than anything, youprobably learned something.You can climb down the tree a little bit, off the skinny branch,

and get back to a place where you have more choices. Are you choos-ing to watch this television show because you enjoy it and you’veallotted time to be able to watch it? Or are you watching it becauseyou are avoiding something you are afraid of? And even if you say,‘‘I’m choosing it because I’m avoiding or afraid of something,’’ atleast you are making a conscious choice around it. And, if it’s aconscious choice, then you don’t have to condemn yourself thatyou’ve done something wrong; you’ve decided to make this choice,


and then, at any given time, instead of the choice that you’ve made,you can choose to make another one.

EXAMINING WHY YOU STILL ‘‘DON’T WANNA’’

There will be times you ‘‘don’t wanna’’ do something. There arealways other opportunities and choices for you to make. These tech-niques and tools for getting you unstuck do not get you off thehook for making a choice, because when you are living your ownlife, you will have many choices. Life is about choosing and morechoosing, from moment to moment.A client of ours, pouting, once said, ‘‘I see a task on my calendar,

but I don’t want to do it.’’ Most of us can relate to that feeling.When you don’t want to do something, you forget why it shows upon your calendar in the first place. You have forgotten the impor-tance. You know the task must be important or else it wouldn’t beon your calendar. In the moment that you recognize you don’t wantto do something, you can give yourself six minutes to pout or atime-out to whine, cry, and grumble. Then ask yourself, ‘‘Why is thetask on my calendar to begin with?’’ If doing the task won’t make adifference in your life, don’t do it. If it will make a difference, thenfigure out why you scheduled it in the first place. How important isit to you? Then do it or reschedule it.And, if you reschedule it, you may try writing down why the

task is important to you, right there with the item on your calendar.Use words that remind you why the task is important to you; later,when it is time to tackle the task, those words will be a source ofinspiration to you.Sometimes people who have been married a long time say they

don’t want to be married anymore. Sometimes parents say that theydon’t want to be a parent anymore. It is a temporary way to releasetension and escape, if only for a second. Sometimes giving yourselfpermission to vent for a little while helps. It does not replace theneed to evaluate why you are resisting something or to figure out


what is important about it, but it can be a short-term relief. Sodecide and choose: Does the item stay on your calendar or not? Ifit does, why? And, most important, what is one redeeming charac-teristic about it that can create some movement for you?To sum up, when you find yourself not wanting to do something

that you have on your calendar:

• Give yourself the permission to whine, pout, or grumble.• Contain your venting by giving yourself a finite amount of time; werecommend six minutes.

• Reexamine why the item is on your calendar to begin with; get backin touch with why it is important to you. Is there something thatcan compel you to take small steps toward doing it?

• Get back to choice mode. Is the task important enough to do? If it’snot, choose not to do it. If it is, then choose when you will do it.There are consequences if you decide not to do it now. Can you livewith those consequences? If not, then you need to find a time for iton your calendar.It might take you two, three, or four more times to schedule a taskyou dislike, such as filing your taxes, before you do it. Eventually,you will reach the point where the consequence of not doing thetask becomes too burdensome and costly—both emotionally and, inthe case of filing taxes, financially. So you choose to surrender, wavethe white flag, give up the fight of resisting the inevitable, and youchoose to do it yourself or have someone do it for you.

WHEN YOU STILL ‘‘DON’T WANNA’’DO IT—TIPS FROM OUR CLIENTS

No one we know wants to do what he or she is supposed to do allthe time. Someone who did would be a robot. We have given yousome suggestions, some questions, and some exercises to use whenyou don’t feel like doing a task. Since this condition of ‘‘don’twanna’’ will be with us for the rest of our lives, here are a few moresuggestions from our clients.


Mike, a successful small-business owner who has created a won-derful life for himself, his family, his employees, his church, and hiscommunity, says: ‘‘When all else fails, what works best for me, andI hate to say it, is to lose the time to choose. I wait until there is notime left to change course, no time left to delegate, no time left torenege on my commitment, and then I cry uncle and just do it.’’Evan, a manager in a software development company, suggests:

‘‘What I’ve found most useful is making sure I set my day up tobe realistic. By realistic I mean allowing for my routines, includinginterruptions and emergencies, and not just what I want my day tolook like. In setting my days up this way, I can shortstop the ‘I don’twannas’ before they happen. And what I’m finding is that, whenthey do happen, it’s usually when I wing it and don’t realisticallyschedule my day.’’Jenna, an executive with a biotech company, offers this sugges-

tion: ‘‘The real power in handling the ‘I don’t wannas’ is in learningto say no. Now that I am designing my days and weeks, schedulingthe work I intend to accomplish, I have a much clearer picture of mylife and my commitments. Now that I can be honest with myself, Ifind it much easier to say no to certain requests made of me that Iwould not have been able to say no to before.’’

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS

Setbacks are recognized as a standard part of engaging in new prac-tices or learning new habits. In the book Changing for Good,3 theauthors studied thousands of individuals confronting long-standingand difficult problems. They found that only 20 percent of peopleare able to change their behavior on the first try. Most peopleshould expect and prepare for setbacks. Relapse is most oftencaused by emotional stress. When emotions get out of order, it iscommon to revert to old and more comfortable ways of behaving.Many times people will experience frustration as they try some-thing new and say it’s too hard and give up. Besides emotional tur-moil, lapses in environmental management contribute most often


to setbacks.4 For example, you acquire the habit of capturing every-thing in your preferred capture tool (i.e., your BlackBerry or a plainold notepad), whereas before you’d jot notes on Post-its. You fill upyour capture tool and in a pinch start using the Post-it notes again.After a week you are back to having everything scattered on variousPost-it notes.The opposite of excusing a small indiscretion is to overreact to

one small slip. If you do momentarily relapse and give in to an oldhabit, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Get back on track again.The difficulty with a relapse is the negative emotions that are

generated. Feelings of failure, discouragement, and demoralizationcan occur. When relapse happens, complete failure is rarely the re-sult. It isn’t likely that you will need to start over from the begin-ning. Just start where you left off and get into action.It is important to extract the benefits of relapse. Learn why you

slipped. Then be conscious of these pitfalls. You can profitably buildprevention into your next plan of action.When all else fails, here are some surefire strategies to get you

back in action. The following Inaction Antidotes are sure to curewhat ails you. Try them out and have fun with them. They aresimple but powerful exercises that generate energy and forward mo-mentum. Don’t take our word for it, see for yourself.

Inaction Antidote 1: Take It or Leave It

When you find yourself avoiding a task, take a step back and choosewhether you will or will not do it. And clearly articulate the reasonswhy or why not. Use the ‘‘take it or leave it’’ decision tree to helpyou.

1. Make a list of things that you don’t want to do, but you know areimportant to do.

2. Select an item from the list you created in step 1. For sixtyseconds, whine and grumble about why you don’t want to do it.Really get into it, with great emotion and affect.

3. Revisit the item and get back in touch with why it is important toyou. Write down its importance.


Table 13-1. Inaction antidote 1: Take it or leave it.

NO, I WON’T DO IT. YES, I WILL DO IT.

a. What are the consequences of this choice?

b. Can you live with theseconsequences?Yes—cross off or delete it!No—continue to c. in the nextcolumn.

c. What are the consequences of this choice?

d. Write something that can compelyou to take small steps towarddoing it.

e. Choose a time(s) in your calendarto complete the item.

4. Get back to choice mode. Is the task important enough to do? Usetable 3-1 to test your choice.

Inaction Antidote 2: Action Algorithm

Another approach to consider when you find yourself unable to getstarted is the action algorithm. Often when you can identify whatyou want to accomplish (as a result of doing something) you cancreate momentum and energy to take action. Answering the ques-tions listed in table 13-2 can help you get to the source of what youwant to accomplish and can catapult you into action.

Inaction Antidote 3: Setting the Scene for Action

What are the conditions that will compel, entice, invite, and encour-age you to engage in what you want to accomplish? What are theenvironmental elements that increase the likelihood for you to takeaction? Setting yourself up for success means creating an environ-ment that nurtures and supports your creativity and productivity.Review the list of environmental factors in table 13-3 and check offthe items that you find pleasing and add items that are missing.Then see what changes you can make to your surroundings that willmake it easier for you to get in action.Also, consider the effect of food on your mood. Are you sluggish


Table 13-2. Inaction antidote 2: Action algorithm.

QUESTION YOUR RESPONSE

What will you accomplish by completing this item/task?

Why is it important to accomplish it?

How will you feel upon completing the task/item?

What will you need to do? What are the discrete steps required to accomplish this item?

How much time might each step take?

What materials or information will you need to complete this task/item? Collect the materials/information now or schedule a time to do so.

How will you reward yourself for completing this item?

What will you accomplish by completing this item/task?

Why is it important to accomplish it?

How will you feel upon completing the task/item?

after lunch? Do you experience a sugar crash in the afternoon?Can’t function without caffeine in the morning? What adjustmentsmight you make?

Inaction Antidote 4: When, Then Planning Scenarios

Use table 13-4 for the final exercise, where you answer the followingquestions: What are some ‘‘likely’’ scenarios that may prevent youfrom being successful with implementing these new practices, andhow can you address them?


Table 13-3. Inaction antidote 3: Setting the scene for action.

SENSE ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS

See

Hear

Smell

Touch

Taste

Time

▫ Outside view▫ Plants or flowers nearby▫ Mini-waterfall▫

▫ Music type: _____________▫

▫ Scented candles▫ Scent diffuser▫

▫ Squeezable toys▫ Ball that can be tossed▫ Pen or other object to twirl▫

▫ Mints▫ Chocolates▫ Chewing gum▫ Candy▫

▫ Early morning▫ Late morning▫ Early afternoon

* Most focused and energetic

▫ Soft lighting▫ A clear and organized

workspace▫

▫ White Noise▫

▫ Fragrance sprayed in the room▫ Potpourri▫

▫ Chair comfort▫ Desk and computer monitor

ergonomic situation▫

▫ Fruits and vegetables▫ Popcorn▫ Snacks▫ Cookies▫

▫ Late afternoon▫ Early evening▫ Late evening

X Most distracted and tired

OVERCOMING INERTIA

Action produces results in our physical world. Thoughts alonewon’t. Intentions alone won’t. Faith alone won’t. Only action will.Sometimes we need to coax ourselves into action or ease ourselvesinto it. Use these ‘‘Inaction Antidotes’’ whenever you need a littlepush to get you moving, because once you start moving, it’s easierto stay in motion.


Table 13-4. Inaction antidote 4: When, then planning.

Fill in the sentences below:

When I ____________________, then I’ll ____________________ to get back on track.




CONDITIONS PREVENTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS

List what is likely to occur that could I can engage it to minimize or prevent cause a relapse or setback with these relapse/breakdowns from occurring:new practices:

14

PARTING WORDS

Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage tocontinue that counts.

—WINSTON CHURCHILL

Our hope for you is that this book provides some effectivemethods to deal with the madness of modern-day living so thatyou can create more time for you to do the things in life that arefulfilling and rewarding while having peace of mind that you haveeverything under control.The onslaught of information that bombards us on a daily basis

is unprecedented in human history. The expectation to synthesize,manage, respond, and use the data is also unparalleled. Our wish isthat you have new ways of processing and handling everything thatcomes at you in your life. Although this is the end of the book, it isthe beginning of you being more effective and productive by prac-ticing these tools that will support you.You will be clearer on what’s most important by creating your

life through accomplishments and then living into the accomplish-ments you’ve created. You’ve learned how to triage your capturetool and mange your e-mail and social media. You now know howto design your days, weeks, and months according to your plan andyour wishes.Here are a few final thoughts we would like to leave you with to


remember what is most important about living this new life you’vecreated.

• Keep your accomplishments in the forefront. You took the time and theenergy to create your accomplishments. Embrace and keep them in frontof you. Use them. Read through each realm of your life that you created.Visualize your success: how you will feel, where you will be, and what youwill be doing. Your accomplishments tell you what the endgame is bydefining what it means to win in your life, what it looks and feels like, soyou’ll recognize your success.

• Be ready. Be aware and ready for change. Know what you want andwhat’s important so you can change in a flash. Tennis players bounce onthe balls of their feet waiting for the serve, so they are ready to go in anydirection the second the ball comes over the net. Be present in your lifetoday. Keep yourself ready and open to accept the opportunities that comeyour way.Stay present to what’s important to you and what you want in life,

because you need to be able to pull in resources that are out there waitingto line up and deliver for you.

• Be the star in your life. Our lives can be distilled to to-do lists, and wecan see ourselves as automatons with tasks to complete. It’s easy for life todissolve to that state, yet there is so much more to be had through inten-tionally creating your life. In this fast-paced, turbocharged world, it’s easyto be disconnected from the power that you have to orchestrate your life.Ask yourself, ‘‘Am I the star in my life?’’ Don’t play a supporting

role—take the lead. When you create your annual accomplishments, youwrite the script and have a big say in how your life goes. Once you’vecreated it, there’s no one else who can live that life but you. Step into lifeand appreciate what a privilege it is to determine what your life will be.Design your life and live it according to what you say is important,according to the contributions that you want to make, and according towhat is going to fulfill you.Be gentle with yourself as you take on these practices. If on your way

you have questions, experiences, or thoughts you want to express to otherswho have read or will read this book, we invite you to share them atwww.moretimeforyou.2beffective.com.

www.moretimeforyou.2beffective.com

Appendix AIMPLEMENTATIONACTION PLAN

This appendix contains a series of checklists for implementing theMore Time for You system. We call it our Four-Week ImplementationAction Plan to help you apply the key practices recommended inthis book. Be sure to schedule time in your calendar to review eachof these items over the next four weeks.

Table A-1. Week one implementation action plan.

WEEK 1 ACTIVITIES

1. Choose a primary capture device.

2. Set up your Outlook folders and/or shortcuts.

3. Review and practice the triage method for emptying your capture device.

4. Empty your inbox and practice your e-mail and social media triage each day.

5. Continue writing your Annual Accomplishments.

6. Conduct your weekly review.

7. Celebrate your progress.

200 APPENDIX A

Table A-2. Week two implementation action plan.

WEEK 2 ACTIVITIES

1. Look at areas where you procrastinated or weren’t able to accomplishwhat you wanted; apply one of the Inaction Antidotes to create movement.

2. Make a list of your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines, thenschedule them in your calendar.

3. If you are concerned about the messages in your Freedom folder,schedule a time each week to view them.

4. Check your Waiting for Response folder each day.

5. Continue to triage your capture device, e-mail, and social media.

6. Conduct a weekly review.


Table A-3. Week three implementation action plan.

WEEK 3 ACTIVITIES

1. Practice saying no.

2. Look at how often you are “moving” or “rescheduling” certainactivities. Reconsider what you want to do with them.

3. Create some e-mail rules for assisting you in emptying your inbox each day.

4. Share your Annual Accomplishments with someone.

5. Continue to triage your capture device, e-mail, and social media.




Implementation Action Plan 201

Table A-4. Week four implementation action plan.

WEEK 4 ACTIVITIES

1. Have you scheduled enough time for interruptions and distractions each day? If not, schedule more.

2. Schedule a project using a checklist.

3. Utilize another Inaction Antidote when you find you are stuck orsuffering a setback.

4. Create some e-mail rules for assisting you in emptying your Inbox each day.

5. Continue to triage your capture device, your e-mail, and social media.

6. Share your Annual Accomplishments with someone.




Appendix BADDITIONAL TECHNIQUESFOR MANAGINGCALENDAR AND E-MAILSYSTEMS

This appendix provides additional instructions on many of the vari-ous scheduling techniques intended to assist you in streamliningyour work. Use this material alongside the information in previouschapters (especially chapters 5 through 10) and appendix A, ourFour-Week Implementation Action Plan. We used Microsoft Out-look versions 2003 and 2007 in the screenshots used as illustra-tions throughout the book. Any instructions can be implemented inboth versions.

1. Setting Up Your Shortcut View

2. Setting Up Shortcuts to Streamline Handling a High Volume ofE-Mail Messages

3. Setting Up Your Inbox View

4. Setting Up Your Waiting for Response Folder View

5. Setting Up the Someday Folder View

6. Adding a Calendar Shortcut to Your Shortcut Bar

7. Moving an E-Mail Message to Your Calendar

8. Setting Up Shortcuts to Streamline Communications with PeopleYou Interact with Frequently

Additional Techniques for Managing Calendar and E-Mail Systems 203

9. Creating Shortcuts for Active Projects

10. Creating a Copy Rule

SETTING UP YOUR SHORTCUT VIEW

Using the Shortcut Bar in Microsoft Outlook allows you to keepactive and important folders at your fingertips without the need todig through your personal folders. It is the recommended methodfor individuals receiving hundreds of messages each day and indi-viduals who manage multiple people or multiple projects at a time.To begin, open your Shortcut Bar by accessing it from your Nav-

igation Pane. It is shown by the arrow icon (see figure B-1).Your shortcut view may have preexisting shortcuts in it, such

Figure B-1. Shortcut bar and icon.

204 APPENDIX B

as ‘‘Outlook Today’’ or others. Begin by deleting all existing short-cuts (figure B-2). Right-click on the shortcut, then choose ‘‘DeleteShortcut’’ from the pull-down menu, highlight it, and click ‘‘Yes’’when it asks if you want to delete the existing shortcut.

Figure B-2. Deleting preexisting shortcuts.

There is no need to worry about this information disappearing.This is merely a shortcut to get to your folder, which is securelysaved in your personal folders. Continue deleting until you have anempty Shortcut Bar. If you previously set up the Waiting for Re-sponse and Someday shortcuts, you do not need to delete them.

SETTING UP YOUR E-MAIL SHORTCUTS

When you receive a large volume of e-mail messages each day, youmay want to set up a group in your shortcuts to aid in getting yourinbox to zero. To begin create a ‘‘New Group’’ and label it ‘‘E-mailManagement’’ (figure B-3). Click on ‘‘New Group’’ and it creates anew group that is highlighted, ready for you to type in the label ‘‘E-mail Management.’’You will set up shortcuts for each of your e-mail folders. Click on

‘‘Add New Shortcut.’’ It opens your ‘‘Personal Folders’’ (figure B-4).


Figure B-3. Creating your E-Mail Management Group.

Figure B-4. Adding an e-mail shortcut.

Repeat this process for the following folders:

Respond TodaySomedayWaiting for ResponseInboxSent Items

Your Shortcut View will look as shown in figure B-5 when com-plete.

206 APPENDIX B

Figure B-5. E-Mail Management Shortcuts.

If the E-mail Shortcuts appear above the E-mail ManagementGroup, simply drag them below it.

SETTING UP YOUR INBOX VIEW

When you use the ‘‘Messages’’ view for your inbox, you can previewmuch of the e-mail message without actually opening it. You mightfind that making triage decisions are easier with this broader viewof your e-mail messages.Figure B-6 shows how to set up your inbox with the ‘‘Messages’’

view. From the Microsoft Outlook toolbar:

1. Choose the ‘‘View’’ tab.

2. Select ‘‘Arrange By.’’

3. Select ‘‘Current View.’’

4. Then select the box next to ‘‘Messages’’ view.


Figure B-6. Setting up your inbox view.

Figure B-7. Messages view.

Your inbox view will look like the screen shown in figure B-7.The advantage of the Messages view is it allows you to view the

message at a glance to quickly determine how to handle each in-coming e-mail. There is often no need to open the entire message;you have enough information in the message pane to make yourtriage decision to either:

• Delete it.• Do it.• File it.

208 APPENDIX B

Then, it’s a simple matter of deleting, doing, or dragging themessage to the appropriate folder. When you drag the items fromyour inbox to one of your e-mail folders, they leave your inbox.

SETTING UP YOUR WAITING FOR RESPONSE FOLDER VIEW

When you use the ‘‘Messages with AutoPreview’’ view, your mes-sages appear as a list that can be sorted, arranged, and color-codedin a manner that allows you to view the contents quickly, which isparticularly useful when reviewing your Waiting for Responsefolder at the end of the day.Figure B-8 shows how to set up this view. From the Outlook

toolbar:

Figure B-8. Messages with AutoPreview view.

1. Choose the ‘‘View’’ tab.

2. Select ‘‘Arrange By.’’

3. Select ‘‘Current View.’’

4. Then select the box next to ‘‘Messages with AutoPreview.’’

Your Waiting for Response folder view will look like the screenshown in figure B-9. Now you can view the subject line of the mes-sages at a glance. During your review of this folder at the end of


the day, you will be able to determine how to handle each messageor note that you posted. Once again, you can:

• Delete it. You have received the information you were waiting for.• Do it. You still haven’t received the information, so take action andeither call the person, send another message, or stop by their officeto remind them.

• Leave it for another day. It’s not critical that you have the infor-mation today and you can count on yourself to review this folderagain tomorrow, when you can make new decisions on the message.

Figure B-9. Waiting for Response folder view.

Using the ‘‘Colored Flags’’ in Your Folders

Once you start using your Waiting for Response folder on a dailybasis, you may have a dozen or more items in here. Using coloredflags to categorize these items allows you to see at a glance whatyou need to attend to. Open your folder and right-click on the flagicon on your first message. It brings up a menu, as shown in figureB-10.There are many different ways to color-code your messages. You

can assign specific colors for messages from family, clients, currentproject(s), and organizations where you may volunteer. You canchoose to ‘‘flag’’ the message or not. When you do ‘‘flag’’ the mes-sage, you can have your messages sorted (figure B-11), by color orcategory, seeing all messages for which you are waiting for a re-sponse from someone. Simply click on the flag icon and they will besorted by color.When you post notes to your Waiting for Response folder or

drag e-mail messages here and color-code them, you can see them

210 APPENDIX B

Figure B-10. Adding flags to waiting for response.

Figure B-11. Using flags to sort “Waiting for Response” messages.

at a glance and handle them effectively. Items in this folder need tobe viewed at least once a day, since they are things you are commit-ted to doing or handling.

SETTING UP THE SOMEDAY FOLDER VIEW

This is another folder where it is simpler to view the contents in a‘‘list view’’ rather than one message at a time. Use the same setupinstructions as with your Waiting for Response folder and yourSomeday folder will look like the screen shown in figure B-12.You can choose to ‘‘flag’’ the message or not. You can choose to

use your colors in a variety of ways for categorizing. One method is


Figure B-12. Someday folder view.

to color-code by the realms of your life, which you set up in chapter5. Then, when you do ‘‘flag’’ the message, you can have your mes-sages sorted by color, seeing all messages related to one realm ofyour life at a time.

ADDING YOUR CALENDAR ICON TO YOUR SHORTCUT VIEW

When you are triaging your e-mail messages, you may often findthat you want to schedule a specific time in your calendar to workon them. To make this process as streamlined as possible, we rec-ommend you add your calendar to your Shortcut View. Figure B-13shows how to create a calendar shortcut.If you have decided that you need a block of time to work on

your response to a message and want to schedule it in your calen-dar, simply drag the message to your calendar folder.See figure B-14.Highlight the message you want to create time to handle. Left-

click and drag it into your calendar shortcut. It takes the informa-tion and fills in a calendar entry for you (see figure B-4). This savesyou from having to retype and insert the message yourself. It willbe done automatically. All you need to do now is to adjust the date

212 APPENDIX B

Figure B-13. Adding your calendar to your Shortcut View.

Figure B-14. Adding your calendar to your Shortcut View.

and time to fit your needs. The program’s default is today’s dateand the current time.This feature allows you to handle the message with a couple

clicks and keeps you focused on triaging your e-mail and emptyingyour inbox. It’s one more way to set yourself up to keep distractionsto a minimum and stay focused on what you’ve chosen to do.


CREATING SHORTCUTS TO STREAMLINE COMMUNICATIONSWITH PEOPLE YOU INTERACT WITH FREQUENTLY

Previously in this appendix we set up a shortcut for your calendarto make it simpler to drag messages from your inbox to your calen-dar. Now we’ll suggest a few other uses for groups and shortcuts.For people you interact with frequently, such as staff members,

you may want to have quick access to their folders. You may alsowant to keep a copy of all their communications. Set up a group(e.g., My Staff) with several shortcuts to their e-mail folders. Usethe same process you used for setting up your E-mail Managementgroup and shortcuts. Figure B-15 is an example of how this setuplooks.

Figure B-15. Creating shortcuts to streamline

communications with key people.

Setting up these folders to use the ‘‘Messages with AutoPre-view’’ view allows you to use this folder for several purposes:

1. Keep a copy of all messages that come from these key contacts(you may even want to create a copy rule, so that whenever youget a message from these people a copy of the message automati-cally goes to this folder; see instructions later in this appendix).

2. Store all incoming and outgoing messages from your key contacts,

214 APPENDIX B

so it’s simpler to go back and locate a specific message or check tosee if you actually sent something to them.

3. Post notes and drag messages into this folder that you want todiscuss at your next one-on-one meeting or group meeting. Usingthe folder in this manner greatly cuts down on interruptionscaused by your having to dash off another e-mail, send anothervoice message, or stop people in the hall. It also decreases thee-mail and voice mail traffic between you and each of your keycontacts. If you are using this folder for this purpose, werecommend you choose a color-coding scheme and code allmessages you want to discuss with them so they are easily distin-guishable from other messages and notes you are just saving. Onceyou’ve discussed them, you could delete them or change their colorto denote that the item or message has been handled.

CREATING SHORTCUTS FOR ACTIVE PROJECTS

For active projects, where you have frequent messages and want tomake sure you have fast access to the project folders, set up short-cuts as well. Start by setting up a Project group and then createshortcuts to the e-mail folders for each of the projects you want toinclude in your Shortcut Bar (see figure B-16).Another useful way to manage projects is to keep relevant docu-

ments that you need to access frequently during the day on yourShortcut Bar next to your project e-mail folder. These documentsmay be Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presenta-tions, or PDF files.To do this, open the folder with the document for which you

want a shortcut. Highlight the document. Then carefully drag thatfile over to your Shortcut Bar. This may not work the first time. Itcan be a little ‘‘finicky.’’ Figure B-17 shows how this setup looks inthe end.To stay focused and avoid being distracted, be sure to close the

groups of shortcuts you are not using.


Figure B-16. Creating shortcuts for active projects.

Figure B-17. Creating shortcuts for important documents

for active projects.

CREATING A COPY RULE

The process is similar to the one used in chapter 10 to create thedelete rule.Select Tools on the Microsoft Outlook toolbar and from the

drop-down menu choose ‘‘Rules and Alerts’’ and then ‘‘New Rule.’’Instead of choosing the button next to ‘‘Start from a template,’’choose ‘‘Start from a blank rule’’ and click ‘‘Next’’ (figure B-18).

216 APPENDIX B

Figure B-18. Creating a rule for copying to a specified folder.

This brings up the Rules Wizard, under Step 1, choose frompeople or distribution list. Under step 2, click on ‘‘people or distri-bution list’’ (figure B-19).This brings you to your Contacts. Highlight the e-mail address



of the person or distribution list whose messages you want auto-matically copied to a specific folder. Click ‘‘From’’ and ‘‘OK.’’ And‘‘Next’’ (figure B-20).


This brings up the Rules Wizard again. Under Step 1, check off‘‘move a copy to the specified folder.’’ Under Step 2, click on ‘‘speci-fied folder.’’This brings you to your e-mail folders. Choose the folder (or

create a new folder) you want messages from this person to be sentto automatically (figure B-21).At this point your rule is essentially complete. Review your re-

sults in Step 2. If correct, click on ‘‘Finish’’ (figure B-22) and Out-look will make a name for the rule you just created. You can later‘‘rename’’ it if you wish. Or you can continue through the next sev-eral screens by clicking ‘‘Next.’’

218 APPENDIX B



NOTES

CHAPTER 11. Jack Canfield, The Success Principles (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 229.2. George Leonard, Mastery: The Keys to Long-Term Success and Fulfillment (NewYork: Dutton, 1991), 15.

CHAPTER 21. Danny Rocks, ‘‘What Is Your Speaking Rate?’’ www.thecompanyrocks.com/blog/2008/04/10/what-is-your-speaking-rate/ (accessed August 11, 2008).

2. Arien Mack and Irvin Rock, Inattentional Blindness (Cambridge: MIT Press,1998).

CHAPTER 31. Albert Einstein, Quote DB, www.quotedb.com/quotes/14 (accessed October28, 2009).

2. Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language (New York: Anchor Books, 1973).3. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organiza-tion (New York: Currency Doubleday, 2006), and MindSpring, ‘‘Ladder of Infer-ence,’’ http://mindspring.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/ladder-of-inference/(accessed August 11, 2008).

CHAPTER 41. Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, ‘‘Beware the Busy Manager,’’ HarvardBusiness Review, February 2002.

CHAPTER 51. Debra Lund, ‘‘FranklinCovey Survey Reveals Top 3 New Year’s Resolutions for2008,’’ Reuters, December 18, 2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132935�18-Dec-2007�BW20071218 (accessed August 12,2008).

www.thecompanyrocks.com/blog/2008/04/10/what-is-your-speaking-rate

www.thecompanyrocks.com/blog/2008/04/10/what-is-your-speaking-rate

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132935+18-Dec-2007+BW20071218

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132935+18-Dec-2007+BW20071218

www.quotedb.com/quotes/14

http://mindspring.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/ladder-of-inference

220 NOTES

CHAPTER 61. Edward M. Hallowell, CrazyBusy (New York: Ballantine Books, 2006).2. Charlie Greer, ‘‘What Are You Thinking? Part Deux,’’ http://www.hvacprofitboosters.com/Tips/Tip_Archive/tip_archive7.html (accessed August 12,2008).

CHAPTER 81. William Ury, The Power of a Positive No (New York: Bantam Books, 2007), 133.

CHAPTER 91. ‘‘Spunlogic Hosts E-mail Psychology Seminar,’’ eMedia Wire, http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw228155.htm (accessed August 12,2008).

CHAPTER 111. Justin Kruger et al., ‘‘Egocentrism over E-mail: Can We Communicate as Wellas We Think?’’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89, no. 6 (December2005): 925–936.

CHAPTER 121. ‘‘Global Faces and Networked Places: A Nielsen Report on Social Networking’sNew Global Footprint,’’ March 2009, http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/social-networking-more-popular-than-email/ (accessed October 28, 2009).

2. Erik Qualman, ‘‘Social Media: Fad or Revolution?’’ Search Engine Watch, www.searchenginewatch.com http://searchenginewatch.com/3634651 (accessedOctober 28, 2009).

CHAPTER 131. Martin Buber, The Way of Man: According to the Teaching of Hasidism (NewYork: Citadel Press, 1966).

2. Daniel Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985).3. J. O. Prochaska, J. C. Norcross, and C. C. DiClemente, Changing for Good (NewYork: William Morrow, 1994).

4. James Clairborn and Cherry Pedrick, The Habit Change Workbook: How to BreakBad Habits and Form Good Ones (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2001), 108.

http://www.hvacpro.tboosters.com/Tips/Tip_Archive/tip_archive7.html

http://www.hvacpro.tboosters.com/Tips/Tip_Archive/tip_archive7.html

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw228155.htm

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw228155.htm

www.searchenginewatch.com

www.searchenginewatch.com

http://searchenginewatch.com/3634651

http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/socialnetworking-more-popular-than-email

http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/socialnetworking-more-popular-than-email

INDEX

acceptance, of differing time behaviors,42, 43

accomplishment(s)annual, 61–63, 67–68, 118–119determining, 61–62effectiveness as key to, 18enhancing, 66, 67examples of, 70–71maintaining awareness of, 198resolutions vs., 62–63reviewing, 69, 118–119sharing, 68–69summary, 66–68action algorithm, 193, 194active projects shortcuts (Microsoft

Outlook), 214–215ADD (attention deficit disorder), 77–78addictionto e-mail, 130–131multitasking as, 34advertising, 15, 125–126alerts (Microsoft Outlook), 158–159‘‘all day event’’ feature, 109–110analysis, in Ladder of Inference, 44annual accomplishments, 61–63summary paragraphs about, 67–68weekly review of, 118–119appointmentsin calendar, 93–94, 112inserting files into, 96–99Argyris, Chris, 44assumptions, in Ladder of Inference,

44, 45attention deficit disorder (ADD), 77–78automatic delete rule, 150–157awarenessof accomplishments, 198of choices, 184–185of multitasking, 34

balance, 22Baldwin, James, on time, 25Bcc (blind copies), 143–146befriending fears, 187–188

beginning large projects, 178–179behaviorsabout time, 42–43noticing, 182Berry, Wendell, on the life we want, 123blame, 38blind copies (Bcc), 143–146blindness, inattentional, 38blocking time, 100–102, 105brainand culturally induced ADD, 78and multitasking, 35–36breathing exercises, 183Breath of Joy exercise, 183–184Bruch, Heike, on effective action, 55Buber, Martin, on origin of conflict, 181

calendar, 93–99‘‘all day event’’ feature of, 109–110color-coding of, 105, 116–117in Microsoft Outlook, 94–97not wanting to do something on,189–191

transition times in, 107as view of your life, 97–99see also schedulingCalendar Coloring (Microsoft Outlook),

105calendar icon (Microsoft Outlook),

211–212calling, 63capture tool, 81–84capturing thoughts, 75–92current attempts at, 80–81tool for, 81–84triage process in, 84–91change, readiness for, 198Changing for Good (Prochaska, Norcross,

and DiClemente), 191checklists, morning, 110–111Chesterfield, Lord, on true value of

time, 5childrenkeeping track of schedules for,108–112

222 INDEX

children (continued )morning checklist for, 110–111time to spend with, 10

choices, 16–18awareness of, 184–185being clear about, see clarityto counteract inertia, 185, 187in dealing with fear, 188–189two-minute, 185

Churchill, Winston, on courage, 197clarity, 49–60about handling finances, 30about objectives, 22about what is important, 50–58exercise for, 50–56to make a difference, 59–60

clutter, 9, 13–14, 123color codingfor children’s schedules, 109in scheduling, 105, 116–117in Waiting for Response folder,209–210

commitments, keeping track of, 80, seealso capturing thoughts

communicationwith family, 111–112and key people communicationsshortcuts, 213–214and miscommunication, 163technologies for, 14, 15, see alsoe-mail; social mediavehicles for, 162

complexity of life, 14–15computers, 13, 14conclusions, in Ladder of Inference, 44,

45conflictinternal, 182with others, 181

coping strategy(-ies), 25–38blame as, 38multitasking as, 32–38procrastination as, 25–32

copy rule (Microsoft Outlook), 215–218costof multitasking, 35, 36of procrastination, 27–28

CrazyBusy (Edward Hallowell), 77–78creating your life, 61–71determining accomplishments in,61–62enhancing accomplishments in, 66,67

examining important realms for,64–66overcoming obstacles in, seerelaunching your created lifepower of, 63and resolution vs. accomplishment,62–63and review of accomplishments, 69and sharing of accomplishments,68–69steps in, 64summary accomplishment in, 66–68walking your talk in, 69–70

culturally induced ADD, 77–78cyber clutter, 123

data, in Ladder of Inference, 44, 45decision treefor e-mail triage, 137–138‘‘take it or leave it,’’ 192–193

defeat, feeling of, 10delegating, time for, 28deleting e-mails, 140, 150–157Davison, W.J., on success, 47designing days and weeks, 119, see also

specific topicsdiet plans, 117Dillard, Annie, on spending time, 93Dirty Sexy Money (TV show), 93distractions, scheduling, 105–107dreams, 114–122enlisting help of universe with,117–118and ‘‘wall of no’s,’’ 119–122weekly review of, 114–119

driving, multitasking when, 11, 35

effectivenessand clarity about what’s important,50, 56conditions for, 20current thinking about, 12definition of, 16and efficiency, 21–22as enjoying what is important, 17as key to accomplishment, pride, andpeace, 18practicing, 23–24productivity increased by, 19–20productivity vs., 16, 17traits needed for, 55

efficiency, 12, 21–22egocentrism, 163

Index 223

Einstein, Alberton reality, 39on relativity, 39e-mail, 123–131addiction to, 130–131considering receivers of, 163–164disadvantages of, 163empty inbox for, 123–124in evolution of being overwhelmed,125

inserted in calendar, 96–97making decisions about, 127–128managing, see e-mail managementas marketing/advertising tool,125–126

most common problems with,128–131

other communication vehicles vs.,162

as problem vs. solution, 15–16sense of being overwhelmed with, 164shame of not responding to, 127volume of, 129, 132, 133, see alsoreducing e-mail volume

e-mail management, 131–148scheduling time for, 134–136separating facts from feelings in,132–134

steps for, 131–132triage folders for, 136–139triage process for, 131, 139–147,161–162

tyranny of, 124E-mail Management folder, 138–139e-mail rules (Microsoft Outlook),

150–157e-mail shortcuts (Microsoft Outlook),

204–206emergencies, scheduling, 105–107Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on finishing

each day, 175energy, for effective action, 55Epley, Nicholas, on miscommunications,

163Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (TV

show), 12

Facebook, 166–167Facebook folders, 172failureas basis of resolutions, 62fear of, 32familyeffects of e-mail glut on, 128

scheduling time/activities with,108–112

time for, 10fearovercoming, 185–189and procrastination, 32FedEx, 79feeling(s)about e-mail, 127, 132–134and activities that meet our needs, 52,53

communicating, 163naming, 182–183of ‘‘warring,’’ 182Feelings Inventory, 52, 53feng shui, 14financesaccomplishments for, 65–68, 117blocking out time for, 28clarity about handling, 30focusin dealing with clients, 36–37for effective action, 55Four-Week Implementation Action Plan,

199–201Freedom folder, 146–147

Ghoshal, Sumantra, on effective action,55

Gilbert, Elizabeth, 119globalization, 14Google Desktop, 143Greer, Charlie, on frequency of

thoughts, 79guilt, 181

habit(s), 177around e-mail, 133of multitasking, 34reverting to, 175that keep us stuck, 178–181Hall, Edward T., 42, 43Hallowell, Edward, on culturally induced

ADD, 77–78holidays, 17

ideas, keeping track of, 80, see alsocapturing thoughts

Implementation Action Plan, 199–201important things in lifeclarity about, see clarityand creating accomplishments, 64–66effectiveness in, 21exercise for identifying, 51–56

224 INDEX

important things in life (continued )losing touch with, 11redefining, 19

Inaction Antidotes, 192–196inattentional blindness, 38inbox view (Microsoft Outlook),

206–208Incoming folders (social media), 172inertia, 187Inaction Antidotes for, 192–196overcoming, 195

Inference, Ladder of, 44–45information overload, 13, 15, 78intentionsclarity about, 59–60in creating accomplishments, 69

interruptions, scheduling, 105–107

judgment, 182

key peoplealerts for messages from, 158–159Outlook communications shortcutsfor, 213–214and people rule, 157

Kruger, Justin, on miscommunications,163

Ladder of Inference, 44–45large projects, 178–180learning, 24Leonard, George, on mastery curve, 24life, as generative process, 22–23Lincoln, Abraham, on living life, 7LinkedIn, 166

magnitude of activities, 13making a difference, 59–60marketing, via e-mail, 125–126‘‘mastery curve,’’ 24media, 14, see also social mediameeting request feature (Microsoft

Outlook), 111–112mental presence, 11Mickelson, Phil, 108micromanagement, 179–180Microsoft Outlook, 85, 202–219active projects shortcuts in, 214–215adding calendar icon to shortcut viewin, 211–212alerts in, 158–159Calendar Coloring in, 105calendar in, 94–97copy rule in, 215–218

e-mail rules in, 150–157e-mail shortcuts in, 204–206inbox view in, 206–208key people shortcuts in, 213–214meeting request feature of, 111–112shortcut view in, 203–204social media rules in, 170Someday folder in, 86, 90–91,210–211Waiting for Response folder in,87–90, 208–210

mindclearing, 78–79speed of, 23see also capturing thoughts

mind-wandering, multitasking vs., 33miscommunications, 163monochronic behaviors, 42, 43morning checklists, 110–111motivation, 180multitasking, 11, 13, 32–38as addiction, 34avoiding, 36–37cost of, 35and degrees of awareness, 34discerning appropriateness of, 37–38as human capacity, 35–36mind-wandering vs., 33

naming feelings, 182–183Needs Inventory, 52–54neglect, of self, 9New Year’s resolutions, 62‘‘no,’’ saying, 119–122

objectives, clarity about, 22Outlook, see Microsoft Outlookovercoming fear, 185–189overwhelmed, feeling, 12and e-mail, 125, 164empathy around, 38

pace of life, 12–13Panone, Donovan, on electronic adver-

tising, 126people rule (e-mail), 157perception(s)and multitasking, 36of shortage of time, 11–12

personal time, 100–102Peter, Laurence J., on clutter and mind,

149planningfor dreams, see dreams

Index 225

for holidays, 17‘‘when, then,’’ 194, 196polychronic behaviors, 43powerof creating your life, 63of fear, 186of saying ‘‘no,’’ 119The Power of a Positive No (William Ury),

120practice, 23–24presence, mental, 11prioritization, 169, 170, see also triage

processprocrastination, 25–32allure of, 26–27fear as basis of, 32impact of, 29–31as self-deceit, 31stress cost of, 27–28and time to delegate, 28as trying to get out of paying, 31productivityand clarity about what’s important,50

current thinking about, 12definition of, 16effectiveness for increasing, 19–20effectiveness vs., 16, 17jump-starting, 181–185practice of, 23–24and scheduled e-mail times, 135source of, 19professional organizers, 14project folders, for e-mail, 143projectslarge, 178–180Outlook shortcuts for, 214–215projects rule (e-mail), 157

quality, quantity vs., 18–19Qualman, Erik, on social media, 165quantity, quality vs., 18–19

range of motion, 43realms of life, 64–66, 70–71reducing e-mail volume, 149–160with alerts for messages from keypeople, 158–159

automatic delete rule for, 150–157enlisting others’ help with, 159–160projects and people rules for, 157by unsubscribing, 149–150relativity, of time, 39–41

relaunching your created life, 175–196and becoming a slug, 176–177by examining why you ‘‘don’t wanna,’’189–191

five steps to, 181–185and habits, 177–181by overcoming fear, 185–189by overcoming inertia, 195strategies for, 191–196Reply to All feature, 160resolutions, accomplishments vs., 62–63Respond Today folder (e-mail), 141–142reviewsof accomplishment, 69, 118–119of dreams, 114–119routines of life, scheduling time for,

99–102

Santana, Carlos, on calling, 63satisfaction with life, 17, 18, 50scattered energy, 179Schaar, John, on the future, 61schedulesfor holiday activities, 17managing, 10scheduling, 93–113‘‘all day event’’ feature in, 109–110blocking of time in, 100–102calendar for, 93–99of capture tool items, 87of e-mail management time, 130,134–136, 142, 147

in fifteen-minute segments, 105including family in, 108–112of interruptions, distractions, andemergencies, 105–107

in Microsoft Outlook, see MicrosoftOutlook

from outcome backward, 108to relaunch created life, 178, 179of social media management time,171–174

of steps toward annual accomplish-ments, 118

time log in, 103, 104of transition time, 107using color labels in, 105Seal, on time signatures, 45self-deception, procrastination as, 31self-degradation, 181self-doubt, procrastination and, 30self-neglect, 9Seneca, on knowing what you seek, 49

226 INDEX

setbacks, 191–195sharing accomplishments, 68–69shortage of time, perception of, 11–12shortcut view (Microsoft Outlook),

203–204The Silent Language (Edward T. Hall), 42slug, becoming, 176–177Smith, Fred, 79social media, 165–174current popular sites for, 166–167managing usage of, 167–174

social media rules (Microsoft Outlook),170

Someday folderfor e-mail, 86, 90–91, 139, 143in Microsoft Outlook, 210–211for social media, 172, 173

spam, 15, 126speaking, speed of, 35–36star of your life, being, 198strategic plan for life, 119, see also plan-

ningstress, from procrastination, 27–28successand clarity about what’s important,58setting yourself up for, 193–195visualizing, 108

summary accomplishment, 66–68Sutherland, Donald, 93

‘‘take it or leave it’’ decision tree,192–193

technologies, 12–15, 162–164telemarketing, 129texting, while driving, 11Thoreau, Henry David, on living life,

114thoughtscapturing, see capturing thoughtsfrequency of, 79keeping track of, 80

time, 7–8behaviors about, 42–43blocking, 100–102different perspectives of, 44–45perceived shortage of, 11–12personal, 100–102range of motion inside, 43

relativity of, 39–41for routines of life, 99–102tracking, 103–105transition, 107

time log, 103, 104time management, 19, 169–174, see also

schedulingtime signatures, 45–46tracking time, 103–105transition time, scheduling, 107triage folders, 136–139triage process, 84in capturing thoughts, 84–91for e-mail management, 131,139–147, 161–162triage folders for, 136–139

trouble, signs of, 9tweets, 167Twitter, 167two-minute choices, 185

universe, enlisting help of, 117–118Unsubscribe folder, 150unsubscribing, 149–150Ury, William, on saying no, 120‘‘us time,’’ 18–19

visualization, 63–64, 108volumeof daily activities, 13of e-mail, 129, 132, 133, see alsoreducing e-mail volume

Waiting for Response folderfor e-mail, 87–90, 139, 142–146in Microsoft Outlook, 208–210

walking your talk, 69–70‘‘wall of no’s,’’ 119–122‘‘warring,’’ feeling of, 182weekly reviews, 114–119of annual accomplishments, 118–119enlisting help of universe in, 117–118mind-clearing exercise in, 115questions for, 115–116

well being, procrastination and, 30when, then planning, 194, 196work time, 102–103

zone, being in, 41–42

About the Authors

Rosemary Meehan Tator, principal partner of 2beffective� LLC, providesclients with the keys to increasing their effectiveness while reducing stress.A management consultant, serial entrepreneur, coach, and motivationalspeaker for over 25 years, she provides leadership development programsas well as productivity, effectiveness, and sales training programs, includingweb-based modules, throughout the U.S. and Europe. Her clients includeAT&T, IHS, Bright Horizons, SolidWorks, and major financial services com-panies. Her unique approach quickly moves individuals and groups to higherlevels of performance, providing them insights and tools to recognize theirunique talents and realize their full potential. Some of the firms she haslaunched include:

• GreenPages, Inc., a corporate computer value-added reseller. Co-founder andVP of Sales and Marketing, she was responsible for building the team that grew thecompany at over 100 percent a year for five years in a row, to $100 million in salesand thirty-six on the INC 500 list.

• Avalon Solutions, Inc., a computer solutions provider. As president and CEO,she grew the company $8 million� in sales in two years, reaching number 62 onthe Dun & Bradstreet/Entrepreneur’s ‘‘Hot 100 Companies’’ list.

Rosemary is a certified professional in many disciplines, includingMission Control Productivity, the Birkman Assessment Method, SpiralDynamics, Adizes Institute Management and Leadership, Miller Heisman’sStrategic Selling, as well as certifying other leaders for Mission Control. Shelives with her husband, Wes, in Dover, NH. Contact her at [email protected].

Alesia Latson, as principal of the Latson Leadership Group, has beenstudying and practicing the art and science of leadership and organizationaldevelopment for over twenty years. She has held management and organiza-tional development roles in Fortune 100 financial services organizationsand healthcare. Through expert facilitation and personal coaching, she hasdeveloped hundreds of leaders at all levels to expand their productivity,management, and leadership impact. She is appreciated for her insight,creativity, and her exceptional skills as a consultant, executive coach, andspeaker.Ms. Latson received her M.A. in Training and Organizational Devel-

opment from Lesley University and her B.A. from the University of Illinois.Formerly an adjunct faculty member of Lesley University and BentleyCollege, she is a frequent guest speaker at Babson Executive Education, MITSloan School of Business, and the University of Michigan’s Ross BusinessSchool. She lives with her husband, Brian, in Sharon, MA. Contact her [email protected].

(Continued from page ii)

‘‘Since being introduced to the principles and practices in More Time for You Iam acutely aware of how I spend my time; no more wasted time spent on ‘oblig-atory meetings.’ I have found that once you are being truly present, dedicated,purposeful, effective, and efficient, the results are so great, there is no turningback.’’—G.E.M. (Trudy) van den Berg, President, 2bcoaching , The Netherlands

‘‘[T]he definitive book for the busy person or executive to help streamline theireveryday workload. More Time for You is filled with practical ways to increaseyour productivity, tips to organize and prioritize your work day through theeffective use of calendars and efficient time savers, and powerful ways to getcontrol of your e-mail inbox immediately. I highly recommend this book asan effective tool to increase your output and capacity in an easy, stress-freemanner!’’—Lois Matheson, Business Counselor, Women’s Business Center,Portsmouth, NH

‘‘I have all too often found myself buying into the notion that knowing equalsdoing. Rosemary Tator and Alesia Latson offer excellent, practical tools forclosing the gap between identifying and actually realizing what is trulyimportant.’’—Jamie Kistler, RN, Owner/Health Educator, Weigh Ahead LLC

‘‘The book’s down-to-earth examples inspired me to have a fresh look at myown productivity habits. I’ve seen a noticeable increase in my effectiveness andproductivity.’’—Eb Schmidt, President, Productivity 21 LLC

‘‘The systems in More Time for You have provided me with a simple yet highlyeffective way to keep my fast-paced career and family life in order. As a workingmother with pre-school twin daughters, I appreciate having a system that incor-porates all of my life—and being present with what’s at hand at any giventime.’’—Kristi Scarpone, M.Ed., Fundraising Consultant

‘‘Of the many insightful and useful practices in More Time for You, creatingannual accomplishments has altered my life. I work from my home and thesesystems have given my office the kind of structure I could never seem to put inplace on my own. Now I know where everything is and I love the feeling of‘nothing left to do or handle.’ Whenever things begin to pile up, I know exactlywhat to do. My life is in order, from the biggest plans and dreams down to thesmallest receipts or business cards. This makes each day pressure-free andenables me to truly enjoy my work. Thank you, for the revolutionary idea thatthings can get done in an atmosphere of ease, grace, and peace of mind.’’—CarolDearborn, author and artist

‘‘This is a valuable work, and I recommend it to every executive looking toimprove their time management skills within their organizations as well as havesatisfied employees.’’—Cathleen M. Moynihan, Senior Account Executive, TheSAVO Group

‘‘In More Time for You, Tator and Latson provide a state-of-the-art technologyfor the average person, seasoned professionals, top executives, and anyone whowants greater effectiveness to translate their life’s visions into concrete andsatisfying accomplishments.’’—Andrew L. Miser, Ph.D., Professional Coach,Elysian Enterprises